THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 239 



brought clear weather, with which we continued our courfe Z J79- 



° June. 



to the North Eaft by North, acrofs the bay, without any land < . 1 



in fight. 



This d'ay we faw a great number of gulls, and were wit- 

 nefTes to the difgufting mode of feeding of the arctic gull, 

 which has procured it the name of the parafite, and which, 

 if the reader is not already acquainted with it, he will find 

 in the note below . 



On the 25th, atone o'clock in the afternoon, being in lati- F.iday 25. 

 tude $y 12', longitude 16S" 35', the wind frefhening from 

 the fame quarter, a thick, fog fucceeded ; and this unfortu- 

 nately jufl at the time we expected to fee Olutorfkoi Nofs, 

 which, if Muller places it right in latitude 59 30', and in 

 longitude 167 36', could only have then been twelve leagues 

 from us; at which diflance, land of a moderate height 

 might eafily have been fecn. But if the fame error in lon- 

 gitude prevails here, which we have hitherto invariably 

 found, it would have been much nearer us, even before the 

 fog came on ; and as we faw no appearance of land at that 

 time, it mud cither have been very low, or there mud be 

 fome miftake of latitude in Muller's account. We tried 

 foundings, but had no ground with one hundred and fixty 

 fathoms of line. 



The weather ftill thickening, and preventing a nearer ap- 

 proach to the land, at five we (leered Ealt by North, which 

 is fomewhat more Eaflerly than the Ruffian charts lay down 

 the trending of the coafl from Olutorfkoi Nofs. The next Saturday 26; 

 day, we had a frefh gale from the South Weft, which laded 



* This bird, which is fomewhat larger than the common gull, purfues the latter 

 kind whenever it meets them ; the gull, after flying for fome time, with loud fcreams, 

 and evident marks of great terror, drops its dung, which its purfuer immediately 

 darts at, and catches before it falls into the fca. 



till 



