KAMTSCHATKA. ^"^5 



be navigated as the Asiatic coast has been, in 

 places, and at different times, is a question which 

 we must leave undecided. The sea can be open 

 but a few days in these high latitudes, and all 

 circumstances combine to render discoveries more 

 difficult, and to lessen their certainty. During 

 the summer season a thick fog hangs over the sea, 

 which only dissoh-es when it is driven by the wind 

 over the warm land, and you do not behold at sea 

 the sun whicli sliines upon the coast.* 



We observe, that that part of the American 



• We observed this phenomenon particularly at St. Lawrence 

 Island, at Oonalashka, in the bay of Avatschka, and at San 

 Francisco. 



The phenomenon of the parhelia, which is said to be often 

 seen in the north of the Atlantic Ocean, is rare in the sea of 

 Kamtschatka. We did not observe it ourselves, and a Russian 

 who has grown old in the Aleutian islands never saw it more 

 than once in his whole life. 



We observed the phenomenon of the mirage, the most re- 

 markable in Beering's Strait, and particularly at the entrance of 

 SchischmarefF Bay, where it surrounded us with manifold 

 deceptions on shore, and on the sea, at all times of the day, like 

 an enchantment. (Compare Capt. Ross's Voyage, p. It?.) The 

 objects lying on the horizon seem to separate themselves from 

 it, and to rise above it ; (generally about three to five minutes, 

 measured by a sextant,) they are reflected in the circle which 

 is caused by their distance from the horizon, and seem to be 

 prolonged by their reflected image. The causes of this pheno- 

 menon appear to us to have lain rather in localities than in the 

 change of the atmosphere, and we have observed it in difi^erent 

 zones with tolerable constancy, in the same place; for example, 

 in the harbour of Hana-rura, (with the prospect towards the 

 west,) in the Bay of Manilla, &c. but never in the vicinity of 

 low islands. 



T 2 



