338 VOYAGE TO THE 



riTj AD 



■ x. ' Rock, as it is an excellent guide to the eastern chan- 

 "T V T W nel, which is the widest and best ; the centre one I 



July, 



1826. named after the Russian Admiral Krusenstern ; and 

 to the north-western island I transferred the name 

 of RatmanofT, which had been bestowed upon the 

 supposed discovery of Kotzebue. We remarked 

 that the Asiatic shore was more buried in snow 

 than the American. The mountains in the one 

 were entirely covered ; in the other, they were 

 streaked and partly exposed. The low land of both 

 on the coast was nearly bare. 



Near the Asiatic shore we had a sandy bottom, 

 but on crossing over the strait, it changed to mud, 

 until well over on the American side, where we 

 passed a tongue of sand and stones in twelve 

 fathoms, which in all probability was the extremity 

 of a shoal, on which the ship was nearly lost the 

 succeeding year. After crossing it the water deep- 

 ened, and the bottom again changed to mud, and 

 we had ten and a half fathoms within two and a 

 half miles of the coast. 



We closed with the American shore, a few miles 

 to the northward of Cape Prince of Wales, and 

 found the coast low, with a ridge of sand extending 

 along it, on which we noticed several Esquimaux 

 habitations. Steering along this shore to the north- 

 ward, in ten and eight fathoms water, a little before 

 noon we were within four and a half miles of 

 Schismareff Inlet. Here we were becalmed, and 

 had leisure to observe the broad sheet of water that 

 extends inland in an E. S. E. direction beyond the 

 reach of the eye.* The width of the inlet between 



* Mountains were seen at the back of it, but the coast was not 

 visible — probably it is low. 



