19- 



A VOYAGE TO 



'"79- carried us over a fpit of fand, which is thrown up by the 

 Jl^j rapidity of the river, and which, they told us, was continu- 

 ally fhifting. When wc had croffed this fhoal, the water 

 again deepened ; and here we found a commodious boat, 

 built and maped like a Norway yawl, ready to convey 

 us up the river, together with canoes for our baggage. 



The mouth of the Awatika is about a quarter of a mile 

 broad ; and as we advanced, it narrowed very gradually. 

 After we had proceeded a few miles, we palled fevcral 

 branches, which, wc were told, emptied thcmfclvcs into 

 other parts of the bay ; and that fome of thofe on the left 

 hand, flowed into the Paratounca river. lis general direc- 

 tion from the bay, for the firft ten miles, is to the North, 

 after which it turns to the Weflward: this bend excepted, it 

 prcferves, for the moil part, a ftraight courfc ; and the coun- 

 try, through which it flows, to the diftance of near thirty 

 miles from the fea, is low and flat, and fubje<5t to frequent 

 inundations. We were puflied forward by fix men, with 

 long poles, three at each end of the boat; two of whom 

 were coflacks, the others Ivamtfchad ales ; and advanced 

 againll a flrong flream, at the rate, as well as I could judge, 

 of about three miles an hour. Our Kamtfchadales bore this 

 fevere labour, with great iloutnefs, for ten hours ; during 

 which wc Hopped only once, and that for a fhort time, 

 whillt they took fome little refrefhment. As we had been 

 told, at our fir ft fctting out in the morning, that we fhould 

 cafily reach an OJIroj, called Karatchin, the fame night, wc 

 were much difappointcd to find ourfelvcs, at fun-fet, fifteen 

 miles from that place. This we attributed to the delay oc- 

 cafioned in palling the Ihoals wc had met with, both at the 

 entrance of the river, and in fevcral other places, as we pro- 

 ceeded up it : for our boat being the lirlt that had palled up 



the 



