PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 325 



CHAP. 

 X. 



In the afternoon of the 23d, in latitude 44° N„ 

 the wind, which had been at S. W., drew round to *•— -^ 

 the west, and brought a cold atmosphere in which is26! 

 the thermometer fell fourteen degrees ; it is remark- 

 able that sixteen hours before this change occurred, 

 the temperature of the sea fell six degrees, while 

 that of the atmosphere was affected only four hours 

 previous. In my remarks on our passage round 

 Cape Horn, 1 have mentioned the frequency with 

 which the temperature of the surface of the sea was 

 affected before that of the atmosphere when material 

 changes of wind were about to occur. 



On the 26th, in latitude 49° N., after having tra- 

 versed nearly seven hundred miles in so thick a fog 

 that we could scarcely see fifty yards from us, a 

 north-east wind cleared the horizon for a few hours : 

 this change again produced a sensible diminution of 

 the temperature, which was thirty-one degrees lower 

 than it had been thirteen days previous. The next 

 day we had the satisfaction of seeing the high moun- 

 tains of Kamschatka, which at a distance are the best 

 guides to the port of Awatska. The eastern moun- 

 tain, situated twenty-five miles from Petropaulski, is 

 7' 375 feet high by my trigonometrical measurement ; 

 another, which is the highest, situated N. 5° E. from 

 the same place, and a little to the northward of a 

 short range upon which there is a volcano in con- 

 stant action, is 11*500 feet high. At eight o'clock 

 we distinguished Cape Gavarea, the southern point 

 of a deep bay in which the harbour of Petropaul- 

 ski is situated, and the same evening we were be- 

 calmed within six miles of our port. Nothing could 

 surpass the serenity of the evening or the magni- 

 ficence of the mountains capped with perennial 



