178 FROM THE ST. LAWRENCE ISLANDS 



CHAPTER Xlll. 



FROM THE ST. LAWRENCE ISLANDS TO GUAHON. 



On the way back to Oonalashka, where we 

 arrived on the 22d, nothing remarkable occurred, 

 except that, in sailing, we struck upon a sleeping 

 whale ; the ship was so violently shaken that I, 

 who was lying in the cabin in bed, thought that 

 we had run on a shoal. The fish, awakened in a 

 fright, had at once darted to a great distance, and 

 then dived to the bottom of the sea. In Oona- 

 lashka we found every thing in the loveliest blossom, 

 which was very beneficial to us all, and particularly 

 relieved the oppression on my chest. M. Kriukof 

 had the kindness to prepare for me a small house 

 in the country, where I recovered pretty tolerably. 

 We here employed our time in baking biscuits of 

 bad flour ; for, as our little Rurick could scarcely 

 hold a stock of provision for two years, we had 

 for this six months past been put on half-allowance, 

 and could not, in spite of this economy, make shift 

 for more than three months. At Oonalashka we 

 had taken in, for our voyage to the north, a large 

 quantity of stock-fish, which was in some measure 

 to supply the want of biscuit. The officers* table 

 was served as meagre as that of the sailors, and the 

 only difference was, that the stock-fish was some- 



