XL] SUFFERINGS OF THE CREW. 247 



to decimate their ranks. Bering himself was now confined to his 

 cabin, and the command was taken by Lieutenant Waxel. 



The condition of the vessel and her crew had now become 

 serious. Day by day the scurvy gained ground among the hard- 

 worked and ill-nourished sailors, and the fogs that are so constant 

 a characteristic of these seas added still further to their difficulties. 

 For days together they were unable to take an observation, navi- 

 gating at random along a coast of which they knew nothing save 

 that it abounded in dangers. The greater part of September had 

 passed, and to the ill-fated crew it must have seemed as though 

 they were destined never to clear the coast that from day to day 

 so pitilessly barred their northward course. On the 24th they 

 sighted the islands to the south of the Alaska peninsula, but the 

 following morning a gale arose which exceeded in violence any that 

 they had hitherto encountered, and lasting for seventeen days, drove 

 them far to the south-east. When the weather had moderated 

 they estimated themselves to be in Lat. 48° 18' IST., but fogs and 

 overcast skies prevented their checking the dead reckoning by 

 observation. A council was held to decide whether they should 

 go into winter-quarters on the shores of the American continent, or 

 attempt to regain Kamschatka, and the latter course was ultimately 

 decided on. It was a fatal resolution, for, bad as their chance 

 would undoubtedly have been on shore, it was a far preferable 

 alternative to the confinement and bad water of the St. Peter. 



During October they sailed slowly westward along the southern 

 shores of the Aleutian chain, sighting^ many islands on their way ; 

 and at length, on the 29th, they found themselves approaching 

 two others, closely adjacent, which they mistook for the two most 

 northern of the Kuriles. In reality these were Attou and Agattou 

 — the Blijni group of the Aleutians. Had they continued their 

 westerly course they would in all human probability have reached 

 Avatcha Bay in a few days, and the lives of Bering and his 

 gallant crew might have been saved. Acting, however, upon their 

 wrong departure, they steered to the north and east, and it was 



