j(](3 cook's VOYAGE TO APRIL, 



sounded, had ground agreeably to our conjectures, 

 with seventy fathoms of line. 



On the 23d, at six in the morning, being in lati- 

 tude 52° 09', and longitude 160° 07', on the fog 

 clearing away, the land appeared in mountains covered 

 with snow ; and extending from north three quarters 

 east, to south-west, a high conical rock, bearing south- 

 west, three quarters west, at three or four leagues 

 distance. We had no sooner taken this imperfect 

 view, than we were again covered with a thick fog. 

 Being now, according to our maps, only eight leagues 

 from the entrance of Awatska Bay, as soon as the 

 weather cleared up, we stood in to take a nearer view 

 of the land ; and a more dismal and dreary prospect 

 I never beheld. The coast appears straight and uni- 

 form, having no inlets or bays ; the ground, from the 

 shore, rises in hills of a moderate elevation, behind 

 which are ranges of mountains, whose summits were 

 lost in the clouds. The whole scene was entirely 

 covered with snow, except the sides of some of the 

 cliffs, which rose too abruptly from the sea for the 

 snow to lie upon them. 



The wind continued blowing very strong from the 

 north-east, with thick hazy weather and sleet, from 

 the 24th till the 28th. During the whole time, the 

 thermometer was never higher than 30£°- The ship 

 appeared to be a complete mass of ice ; the shrowds 

 were so incrusted with it, as to measure in circum- 

 ference more than double their usual size ; and, in 

 short, the experience of the oldest seaman among us, 

 had never met with any thing like the continued 

 showers of sleet, and the extreme cold, which we now 

 encountered. Indeed, the severity of the weather, 

 added to the great difficulty of working the ships, 

 and the labour of keeping the pumps constantly 

 going, rendered the service too hard for many of the 

 crew, some of whom were frost-bitten, and others 

 laid up with bad colds. We continued all this time 

 standing four hours on each tack, having generally 



