RUSSIANDISCOVERIES. 69 



ftance feems to prove that Alakfu is Htuated at no great 

 diftance from the Continent of America. As to red, 

 black, and grey foxes, there is fo large a quantity, that 

 they are feen in herds of ten or twenty at a time. Wood 

 is driven upon the coaft in great abundance. The 

 ifland produces no large trees, having only fome under- 

 wood, and a great variety of bulbs, roots, and berries. 

 The coafts are frequented by large flocks of fea-birds, 

 the fame which are obferved upon the fliore of the 

 fea of Penfliinik. 



Auguft 4, 1759, the Peter and Paul, fitted out at the p^^^'^^.'^fpj,! 

 expence of the merchant Rybenfkoi by his agent An- ILVmani'i!', 

 drew SerebranikofF, and manned with thirty-three per- 

 fons, fet fail from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river. 

 They fleered fouthwards until the 20th of September 

 without feeing any land, when they flood for the Aleu- 

 tian Ifles, one of which they reached the 27 th of Sep- 

 tember. They remained there until the 24th of June, 

 1761 ; during which time they killed upon this and 

 the two other iflands 1900 old and young fea-otters, , 

 and obtained 450 more by bartering with the iflanders.. 

 The Coflac Minyachin, who was on board as colletSlor 

 of the tribute, calls in his account the firft ifland by the 

 RulTian name of Krugloi, or Round Ifland, which he 

 fuppofes to be about fixty verfts in circumference : the 

 largefl ifland lies thirty verfts from thence, and is about 

 an hundred and fifty round : the fmalleft is about thirty 



verfts 



