558 DISCOVERIES OE 1815 to 



prepared for this xinclertaking was called the 

 Rurick, and Lieutenant Kotzebue, son of the 

 celebrated writer of that name, Avas appointed to 

 command her. She was of small tonnage, not 

 exceeding one hundred, and manned with twenty- 

 two men, officers included, a surgeon and 

 botanist. His instructions were to proceed round 

 Cape Horn, and make the best of his way to 

 the north-west coast of America, pass Behring'^ 

 Strait, and endeavour to find some bay or inlet on 

 the American side to lay up his vessel in safety, 

 while, with a certain number of his crew, he 

 should penetrate the American continent by land, 

 first to the northward, to ascertain if Icy Cape be 

 an island, as is supposed, and then to the eastward, 

 keeping the hyperborean sea on their left, and 

 carrying with them light skin boats or baidars to 

 enable them to pass such lakes or rivers as might 

 intervene. 



At one of the Aleutian Islands he observed a 

 vast quantity of drift-wood thrown upon the 

 shore, and, among other species of wood, picked 

 np a log of the camphor tree. In the midst of 

 Behring's Strait, between East Cape and Cape 

 Prince of Wales, he found the current setting 

 strongly to the north-east, at the rate, as he 

 thought, of two miles and a half an hour, which 

 is at least twice the velocity observed by Cook. 

 In this particular place also the depth of the water 

 was considerably more than the soundings meu-^ 

 tioned in Cook's voyage. 



