TO OONALASHKA. 213 



and Ratmanof Island S. E. 39° : the weather was 

 gloomy, and the wind fresh. 



August 19th. After we had passed a rainy and 

 stormy night in continual tacking, I hoped by our 

 ship's reckoning to be near St. Lawrence Bay. A 

 thick fog which had hitherto concealed tlie coast, 

 dispersed a little towards noon, and we saw the 

 summit of a mountain at a small distance to the 

 S.S.W. ; but how were we astonished, when, on 

 the horizon clearing up, we perceived that this 

 mountain formed East Cape, and thus we had not 

 advanced a step since yesterday. The current, 

 according to our calculation, had carried us fifty 

 miles to N.N.E. in 24 hours, i.e. above two miles an 

 hour. I estimate the current on the Asiatic coast in 

 the channel, at the greatest depth, to be three miles 

 an hour when the wind blew fresh from the S. The 

 constant N.E. direction of the current in Beering's 

 Strait proves that the water meets with no opposi- 

 tion, and consequently a passage must exist, though 

 perhaps not adapted to navigation. Observations 

 have long been made, that the current in Baffin's 

 Bay runs to the S., and thus no doubt can remain 

 that the mass of water which flows into Beering*s 

 Straits, takes its course round America, and returns 

 through Baffin's Bay into the ocean. 



As it seemed to be the will of fate that we should 

 visit East Cape, I steered thither, and kept to the 

 north side, to be protected from the south wind. 

 It consists of very high land, and in many places 



E 2 



