356 cook's voyage to oct. 



and steered west ; but the wind increasing to a gale, 

 soon obliged us to double reef the top-sails; and, at 

 midnight, we judged it necessary to try for sound- 

 ings. Accordingly we hove to; but finding no 

 bottom at seventy-five fathoms, we were encouraged 

 to persevere, and again bore away west, with the 

 wind at south-east. This course we kept till two in 

 the morning, when the weather becoming thick, we 

 hauled our wind and steered to the south-west 

 till five, when a violent storm reduced us to our 

 courses. 



Notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the 

 weather left us little prospect of making the land, 

 we still kept this object anxiously in view ; and at 

 day-light, ventured to steer west by south, and 

 continued to stand on in this direction till ten in 

 the forenoon, when the wind suddenly shifting 

 to the south-west, brought with it clear weather. 

 Of this we had scarcely taken advantage, by setting 

 the top-sails, and letting out the reefs, when it began 

 to blow so strong from this quarter, that we were 

 forced to close reef again ; and at noon, the wind 

 shifting two points to the west, rendered it vain to 

 keep any longer on this tack. We, therefore, put 

 about, and steered to the southward. At this time, 

 our latitude, by observation, was 44° 12', and lon- 

 gitude 150° 40' ; so that, after all our efforts, we 

 had the mortification to find ourselves, according 

 to the Russian charts, upon a meridian with Na- 

 deegsda, which they make the southernmost of the 

 Kurile islands, and about twenty leagues to the 

 southward. 



But, though the violent and contrary winds we 

 had met with during the last six days, prevented 

 our getting in with these islands, yet the course we 

 had been obliged to hold, is not without its geo- 

 graphical advantages. For the group of Islands, 

 consisting of the Three Sisters, Kunashir, and 

 Zellany, which, in D'Anville's maps, are placed in 



