INVESTIGATIONS OF THE STEAMER ALBATROSS. 205 



exposed for about a year, but was in fairly good condition. The Wellington coal 

 was fresh from the mines and of good quality. The figures arc from data taken from 

 the steam log of this vessel and can not be considered as more than approximate, owing 

 to the difficulty of getting runs with the different coals under the same conditions. 



Percentage 

 of ash. 



Coinos 1 3 '. 



Brymbo 10J 



Wellington 15 



The distance that can be steamed at economical speed by this vessel with equal 

 amounts of coal is as follows: With Coinox, about 6 per cent more than with Wel- 

 lington and 3 per cent less than with Brymbo. from my experience with the Comox 

 coal I do not hesitate to pronounce it superior for our purposes to any coast coal on 

 the market. 



Getting under way at 4.55 a. m. August 31, we examined the area 

 embraced between Akutau and Akun islands, commonly called Akutan 

 Bay, and looked into Akutan Harbor and other coves to ascertain 

 whether any of the small sealers had taken rein go there. The beam 

 trawl and hand-lines were used at several stations to determine the 

 character of bottom and its fauna, thinking we might possibly find 

 codfish or halibut. On the contrary, the bottom was composed largely 

 of glacial mud and almost barren of life. 



Arriving off the north head of Akun at 1.50 p. m., a vessel was 

 reported from the masthead, standing to the southward through Uni- 

 mak Pass. Gave chase, and at 3.50 boarded the American schooner 

 Lettitidj from Sulima River for San Francisco with a cargo of salt 

 salmon. As soon as the boarding officer returned, we steamed to the 

 southward and westward, and at 0.30 p. m. anchored in Akun Cove for 

 the night. 



Getting under way at 4.15 the following morning, September 1, we 

 took up radial line xn, the last of the series, in latitude 54° 30' N., 

 longitude 165° 27' W., depth 113 fathoms, and developed it to the initial 

 point. A northeasterly wind sprang up soon after we reached the line, 

 and increased in force during the day until it became exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to carry on the work; yet we persevered until the evening of the 

 2d, and succeeded in covering a large portion of the unexplored ground 

 in the region of the Pribilofs. 



When in the vicinity of Otter Island a heavy break was seen over a 

 reef which extends at least half a mile off its western extremity, as 

 shown on canceled Coast Survey chart No. 880, but not charted on 

 later issues. The charts of the Pribilof Islands have ''breakers 1 ' 

 marked about 2 miles K. by E. (magnetic) from Otter Island, directly 

 between it and St. Paul, and while the existence of concealed dangers 

 in the assigned position has been generally doubted, the spot has been 

 given a wide berth in clear weather, and has proved the source of much 

 anxiety to navigators during the almost constant summer fogs. The 

 absence of breakers with the heavy swell then rolling in seemed to 

 confirm their nonexistence, but to settle the questionjbeyond doubt we 

 steamed to the spot and sounded in 2(3 fathoms, sand and stones, then 



