PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 335 



The current off here, on one trial, ran N. E. five- chap 



eighths of a mile per hour, and on another, N. 60° E. 

 seven-eighths of a mile per hour: as observations on JjJe}'. 

 this interesting subject were repeatedly made, they 

 will be classed in a table in the Appendix. 



Favoured with a fair wind, on the 19th we saw 

 King's Island ; which, though small, is high and 

 rugged, and has low land at its base, with apparent- 

 ly breakers off its south extreme. 



We had now advanced sufficiently far to the 

 northward to carry on our operations at midnight ; 

 an advantage in the navigation of an unfrequented 

 sea which often precludes the necessity of lying to. 



We approached the strait which separates the two 

 great continents of Asia and America, on one of 

 those beautiful still nights, well known to all who 

 have visited the arctic regions, when the sky is 

 without a cloud, and when the midnight sun, scarce- 

 ly his own diameter below the horizon, tinges with 

 a bright hue all the northern circle. Our ship, pro- 

 pelled by an increasing breeze, glided rapidly along 

 a smooth sea, startling from her path flocks of 

 lummes and dovekies, and other aquatic birds, 

 whose flight could, from the stillness of the scene, 

 be traced by the ear to a considerable distance. 

 Our rate of sailing, however, by no means kept 

 pace with our anxiety that the fog, which usually 

 succeeds a fine day in high latitudes, should hold 

 off until we had decided a geographical question of 

 some importance, as connected with the memory 

 of the immortal Cook. That excellent navigator, 

 in his discoveries of these seas, placed three is- 

 lands in the middle of the strait (the Diomede 

 Islands). Kotzebue, however, in passing them, 



