412 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



of a species resembling ducks. This is usually considered 

 as a proof of the vicinity of land, but we had no other signs 

 of it since the 16th, in which time we had run upwards of a 

 hundred and fifty leagues. 



'" On the 22nd the cold was exceedingly severe, and the 

 ropes were so frozen that it was with difficulty we could 

 force them through the blocks. 



" On the 23rd, at six in the morning, the land appeared 

 in mountains covered with snow, and extending from north- 

 east to south-west, a high conical rock, bearing south-west, 

 at three or four leagues' distance. We had no sooner taken 

 this imperfect view than we were c6vered with a thick fog. 

 As soon as the weather cleared up we stood in to make a 

 nearer view of the land, and a more dismal and dreary 

 prospect I never beheld. The coast appears straight and 

 uniform, having no inlets or bays ; the ground from the 

 shore rises in hills of a moderate elevation, behind which are 

 ranges of mountains, whose summits were lost in the 

 clouds. The whole scene was entirely covered with snow, 

 except the sides of some of the cliffs, which rose too abruptly 

 from the sea for the snow to lie upon them. 



" The wind continued blowing very strong from the 

 north-east, with thick hazy weather and sleet, from the 24th 

 till the 28th. The ship appeared to be a complete mass of 

 ice ; the shrouds were so incrusted with it as to measure in 

 circumference more than double their usual size ; and, in 

 short, the experience of the oldest seaman among us had 

 never met with anything like the continued showers of 

 sleet and the extreme cold which we now encountered. 



" On the 28th, in the morning, the weather at last cleared, 

 and the wind fell to a light breeze from the same quarter as 

 before. We had a fine warm day, and as we now began to 

 expect a thaw, the men were employed in breaking the ice 

 from off the rigging, masts, and sails, in order to prevent its 

 falling on our heads. About three in the afternoon a fair 

 wind sprung up from the southward, with which we stood 

 in for Awatska Bay. 



" Having passed the mouth of the bay, which is about 

 four miles long, we opened a large circular basin of twenty- 

 five miles in circumference, and at half-past four came to an 

 anchor ; in six fathoms water. We examined every corner 

 of the bay with our glasses in search of the town of St. 

 Peter and St. Paul, which, according to the accounts given 

 us at Oonalashka, we had conceived to be a place of some 

 strength and consideration. At length we discovered, on a 

 narrow point of the land to the north-east, a few miserable 

 log-houses and some conical huts, raised on poles, amount- 

 ing in all to about thirty, which, from their situation, 



