Nov. 

 1826. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 469 



person who may have to seek a channel through chap 

 this chain in foggy weather, particularly as these 

 passages are said to be rendered dangerous by the 

 rapid tides which set through them. It was no 

 doubt these tides, added to the prevalence of fogs, 

 that caused many of the misfortunes which befel 

 the early Russian navigators. Shelekoff, in speak- 

 ing of the strait to the westward of Oonemak, 

 through which we passed, observes that it is free from 

 the danger of rocks and shoals, but is troubled 

 with a strong current. In our passage through 

 it, however, we did not remark that this was the 

 case; but no doubt there are just grounds for the 

 observation.* 



After running five miles, breakers were seen upon 

 both bows, and, at the same time, very high cliffs 

 above them. We stood on a little further, and then, 

 satisfied that the land must be that of Oonemak, 

 bore up along it, and passed through the strait. We 

 had no soundings with forty fathoms of line until 

 we were about four miles off the S. W. end of the 

 island; and there we found thirty fathoms on a 

 bank of dark-coloured lava, pebbles, and scoriae, but 

 immediately lost it again, and had no bottom after- 

 wards. The south-west angle of Oonemak is dis- 

 tinguished by a wedge-shaped cape, with a pointed 

 rock off it. This cape and the island of Coogalga 

 form the narrowest part of the strait, which is nine 

 miles and a half across. Coogalga is about four miles 

 long, and rendered very conspicuous by a peak on its 



* I afterwards learned from a very respectable master of an 

 American brig, that in passing through the strait to the westward 

 of Oonalaska he experienced a current running to the northward 

 at the rate of six miles an hour, and was unable to stem it. 



