336 VOYAGE TO THE 



fancied he saw a fourth, and conjectured that it 

 must have been either overlooked by Cook and 

 1826. Clerke, or that it had been since raised by an earth- 

 quake.* 



As we proceeded, the land on the south side of 

 St. Lawrence Bay made its appearance first, and 

 next the lofty mountains at the back of Cape 

 Prince of Wales, then hill after hill rose alternately 

 on either bow, curiously refracted, and assuming all 

 the varied forms which that phenomenon of the 

 atmosphere is known to occasion. At last, at the 

 distance of fifty miles, the Diomede Islands, and 

 the eastern Cape of Asia, rose above the horizon of 

 our mast-head. But, as if to teach us the necessity 

 of patience in the sea we were about to navigate, be- 

 fore we had determined the question, a thick fog 

 enveloped every thing in obscurity. We conti- 

 nued to run on, assisted by a strong northerly cur- 

 rent, until seven o'clock the next morning, when 

 the western Diomede was seen through the fog close 

 to us. 



In our passage from St. Lawrence Island to this 

 situation, the depth of the sea increased a little, until 

 to the northward of King's Island, after which it be- 

 gan to decrease ; but in the vicinity of the Diomede 

 Islands, where the strait became narrowed, it again 

 deepened, and continued between twenty -five and 

 twenty-seven fathoms. The bottom, until close to 

 the Diomedes, was composed of fine sand, but near 

 them it changed to coarse stones and gravel, as at St. 

 Lawrence Island ; transitions which, by being attend- 

 ed to, maybe of service to navigators in foggy weather. 



* Some doubt, it appears, was created in the minds of the Rus- 

 sians themselves as to this supposed discovery, as we understood 

 at Petropaulski, that a large wager was depending upon it. 



