Oct. 

 1826. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 463 



for finding the cask of flour, and also a piece of chap 

 drift-wood which was deposited in a hole in the cliff. 

 This billet had been purposely bored and charged 

 with a letter containing all the useful information I 

 could impart to the party, and then plugged up in 

 such a manner that no traces of its being opened 

 were visible. In fact, nothing was left undone that 

 appeared to me likely to prove useful. 



Having thus far performed our duty, we prepared 

 the ship for sea in order that she might start at an 

 hour's notice. On the 13th, the temperature fell to 

 27°, the lakes on shore had borne two or three days, 

 and the sea had cooled down 8° ; in short, there was 

 every appearance of a settled frost. The next day 

 the edges of the sound began to freeze, and it was 

 evident that it needed only calm weather to skin it 

 entirely over. I therefore desired the anchor to be 

 weighed, and having taken on board a large supply 

 of drift-wood, the last thing we procured from the 

 shore, we steered out of the sound. 



We passed Cape Krusenstern about midnight, 

 and then shaped a course for the strait. The night, 

 though cold, was fine, and furnished me with 

 eighteen sets of lunar distances, east and west of the 

 moon, which I was very anxious to obtain, in order 

 to fix more accurately the position of Chamisso 

 Island, never having been able to succeed in getting 

 fine weather with the moon to the east of the sun, 

 until his declination was too far south for the lunars 

 to be of any value. 



We had no observation at noon the next day, 

 and the land was so refracted that we scarcely re- 

 cognised it ; we, however, continued to run for the 

 strait, anxious to reach it before sunset. The breeze 



