270 THE UUIRIK GROUP. 



On the 26th5 we were, by observation, in 

 14° 32' latitude, and 169° 38' longitude. During 

 the whole of the day, large flights of such sea- 

 birds were seen as indicate the neighbourhood 

 of land, and even some land-birds ; so that no 

 doubt remained of our having sailed at no great 

 distance from an island hitherto unknown, the 

 discovery of which is reserved for some future 

 voyager. During the whole of this course, we 

 had frequent signs of the vicinity of land, but 

 never to the same extent as on this day. 



A captain, who had frequently made the voy- 

 age from the Sandwich Isles to Canton, asserts 

 his having discovered a shoal in 14*^42' latitude, 

 and 170° 30' longitude. I can neither confirm 

 nor confute this assertion ; and my only motive 

 for repeating it here is, that vessels passing near 

 that point may be put upon their guard. 



On the 5th of October we reached the Udirik 

 group, the most northern of the islands belong- 

 ing to the Radack chain. We sailed past its 

 southern point, at a distance of only three miles, 

 for the purpose of rectifying our longitude, 

 that, in case of discovering the Ralik chain, 

 we might be enabled to ascertain the exact dif- 



