342 NOTE TO ACCOMPANY THE CHART 



DISCOVERY OF LAND 



On July 14 large numbers of shore ducks and gulls indicated 

 that land was not far distant, and at daybreak on the 15th the 

 land to the northward of Dixon's Entrance was sighted. At 3 

 A.M. Capes Addington and Bartolome were in plain sight; but, 

 the wind being very light, it was not until noon that the St. Paul 

 could be worked in under the shores of Cape Addington. In the 

 afternoon of the 16th a boat was sent to examine the bay between 

 the two capes; but, finding the anchorage unprotected from the 

 west and south winds, Chirikov stood offshore when the breeze 

 freshened at sundown. At daylight the course was changed to 

 the northward, and the St. Paul passed outside the Hazy Islands, 

 which were sighted at nine o'clock in the forenoon. An hour later 

 the highland of Cape Ommaney loomed up through the mist, 

 and at noon, July 16, the St. Paul was under the hills of Puffin 

 Point. Chirikov now paralleled the coast until 9 p.m. of the 

 17th, keeping from three to four miles from the shore, and then 

 hauled offshore until 11 p.m. when he hove to until daylight. 

 From noon until 8 p.m. of the 17th the vessel logged a distance of 

 36 knots; adding to this a favorable current of about one knot 

 per hour would place the St. Paul at 8 p.m. abreast that part of 

 the coast where the land falls away to form the southern shores 

 of Sitka Sound, and the log records that at 8 p.m. the "coast seemed 

 to end in N^E, distant 8 knots, and in its place appeared 

 low land with sea cliffs, with the high mountains receding in the 

 background." An hour later the St. Paul's course was changed 

 to WNW^W, true, for two hours. At 1 1 p.m. she was hove to, 

 and at daylight the course parallel to the coast was resumed. All 

 this time the current was setting to the northward along the 

 coast so that the St. Paul passed Sitka Sound in the night and 

 was well north of Cape Edgecumbe at daylight. Indeed the 

 log records at 9 a.m. on the 17th a cape to the SE, which could 

 be no other than Cape Edgecumbe. At the same time another 

 point of land (Cape Cross) loomed up about NNW; Chirikov's 

 observation on the 17th gave the noon latitude as 57 39'; the 

 bearings at noon as given in the log and the courses and distances 



