186 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. yiii. 



attempted it on the previous night would have been foolhardy in 

 the extreme. At ordinary high tides it appears that there is 



between ten and eleven feet only in the deepest part, and E told 



us that he had had a narrow escape in getting the Nemo, which had 

 a draught of ten feet six inches, into the river. She had bumped 

 heavily once or twice. The entrance shifts constantly, and in bad 

 or indifferent weather the bar is doubtless a very dangerous one. 

 "We arrived at the best time of the tide,^ and were fortunate enough 

 to get over the three big waves without even a wetting. A few 

 minutes later we boarded the Marchesa, after an absence of exactly 

 a month. "We found all well, and the day passed quickly in chat- 

 ting over our various adventures. The Swedes bade us adieu 

 towards evening, and the sun was setting in a blaze of gold behind 

 the giant pyramids of Kluclii and Kojerevska as we fired a farewell 

 gun and stood away for Bering Island." 



^ It appears that there is onlj' one tide here in the twenty-four hours. 



- I have adopted this, the correct orthography of the celebrated navigator's name, 

 instead of the more usual Behring, a piece of bad spelling which, I believe, we 

 originally borrowed from the Germans. 



