314 REPORT ON VOYAGE OF THE "ST. PAUL" 



of the Nuremberg geographer Johann Baptist Homann and others, we 

 were not far from parts of America that are well known. To illustrate 

 this point more clearly we have joined (on the chart which is being sent 

 to the Admiralty College) our discoveries with the American coast as 

 it appears on the map of Homann and Professor Delisle de la Croyere, 

 namely the northern part of California, the mouth of the Moozemleck 

 River, 3 a portion of the interior of the eastern part of Hudson Strait. 

 The longitude of Kamchatka, as given on the chart, is referred to 

 Teneriffe Island and St. Petersburg as calculated by Professor Delisle 

 de la Croyere. 



When we stood near the land on the above-noted date we looked about 

 for anchorage in order to make our observations as we were instructed. 

 We approached within three versts of the shore and even nearer in some 

 places, sounding as we went along, but found no good anchorage, for 

 the depth was about 70 fathoms or more. The coast is irregular and 

 mountainous; these mountains had a fine growth of timber and in 

 places were covered with snow. In the journal and on the general chart 

 may be seen the lay of the land, for we paralleled it. Not finding a good 

 anchorage I sent the quartermaster Grigori Trubitsin with eight men in 

 the longboat into a bay to ascertain whether it could be entered, the kind 

 of anchorage, and the depth of the water. He did as he was told and 

 returned in four hours and made a written report to the effect that he 

 had been within 60 fathoms of the shore opposite the bay, where he found 

 40 fathoms of water and gravelly, sandy bottom. There was shelter 

 from north and east winds, but no protection from west and south winds. 

 It offered anchorage for only a small boat. The width of the bay from 

 the cape to the shore is sorr awhere from 4 to 5 versts. In going by the 

 cape we noticed on the rocks many sea lions. On the mountains were 

 large trees of fir and pine. Human habitation we did not see. On July 

 16, at eight o'clock in the evening, we took the longboat aboard, because 

 there was no good place to anchor; and, for more safety, we steered away 

 from shore for the night. About five in the morning, the wind being fair, 

 we came about and sailed north on the same rhumb on which we last 

 saw land [Cape Ommaney] in the north the night before. At ten o'clock 

 in the morning we came within a half verst of it. At the time it was quite 

 foggy, and in order not to get too close we paralleled it, keeping between 

 north and west. It was my intention to make a careful survey of a part 

 of the American coast, but my plans were ruined by the misfortune of 

 July 18. On that day we were in the 58th degree, and I noticed that the 

 mountains had more snow on them than those we had passed. Evidently 

 we were going into colder country, where it is more difficult to make ob- 

 servations than in warmer. With this idea in mind I ordered, my officers 



3 On Homann's map (1712?) this river falls into the Gulf of California. 



