312 VOYAGE TO THE 



CHAP, an occasional communication between all the tribes on 



VII 



.^ ; the north coast of America. 



Oct. The subject of currents in Beerin^'s strait has lost 



much of its interest by the removal of the doubt re- 

 garding the separation of the continents of Asia and 

 America ; and it is now of importance only to the 

 navigator, and to the natural philosopher. 



It does not appear, from our passages across the sea 

 of Kamschatka, that any great body of water flows 

 towards Beering's Strait. In one year the whole 

 amount of current from Petropaulski to St. Lawrence 

 Island was S. 54'' W, thirty-one miles, and in the next 

 N. 50" W. fifty-one miles, and from Kotzebue Sound to 

 Oonemak N. 79°. W. seventy-nine miles. Approach- 

 ing Beering's Strait, the first year, with light southerly 

 winds, it ran north sixteen miles per day ; and in the 

 next, with strong S. W. winds, north five miles ; and 

 with a strong N. E. wind, N. 34^ W. twenty-three 

 miles. Returning three different times with gales at 

 N. W. there was no perceptible current. 



By these observations it appears that near the strait 

 with southerly and easterly winds there is acurrentto the 

 northward; but with northerly and north-westerly winds 

 there is none to the southward, and consequently that 

 the preponderance is in favour of the former, and of 

 the generally received opinion of all persons who have 

 navigated these seas. I prefer this method of arriving 

 at the set of the current to giving experiments made 

 occasionally with boats, as they would lead to a result? 

 which would err according to the time of the tide at 

 which they were made. 



To the northward of Beering's Strait, the nature of 

 the service we were employed upon confined us within 



