KOTZEBUE, LUTKE, BEECHEY-' BLOSSOM'S ' VOYAGE. 113 



St. Lawrence Island on the 27th, reached Cape Prince of Wales 

 on the 30th, and discovered Kotzebue Sound on August 1st. 

 After exploring it he returned to the south on the 10th. An 

 account of this voyage, in three volumes, was published in London 

 in 1821. 



Captain Lutke, in command of the corvette Le Seniavine, vh-ited 

 Behring Strait in the years 1828 and 1829. To him we are indebted 

 for some valuable charts of the coast of Asia between the 53° 

 and 65° of lat. A narrative of this portion of the voyage will bo 

 found at Chap. XI. vol. ii., and from pages 17 to 56 in vol. iii. of the 

 account of the voyage, which was published in Paris in 1835. 



Voyage of the ' Blossom.' — The Blossom left the harbour of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul on July 5th, 1826. On the 18th, when off St. Lawrence 

 Island, a current was found to be setting to the north-east, three- 

 quarters of a mile per hour. On the 20th, the Diomede Isles were 

 reached, and Kotzebue Sound on the 22nd. Leaving that place on 

 the 30th, the current off Point Hope was found to be superficial, 

 i.e., not extending 12 feet below the surface; but at the surface it 

 attained a rate in a westerly direction of 3 miles per hour. In the 

 evening it slacked to 1^ miles. On the 8th of August Cape Lis- 

 burn was reached, and the edge of the pack was fallen in with in 

 lat. 71° 8' x. on the 13th. The barge, under the charge of Mr. Elson 

 was sent to the northward on the 17th, and the Blossom returned to 

 Kotzebue Sound on the 28th. The barge arrived here on the 10th 

 of September, having reached Point Barrow in 71° 23^'. In re- 

 turning she was driven on shore by the pack ; but the wind coming 

 round to the S.S.E., she made her escape with much difficulty. The 

 ice at Point Barrow was aground in 4. fathoms water, and was 

 14 feet above the level of the sea. On the 13th of October the 

 thermometer fell to 27°, and the edge of the sound began to freeze. 

 The Blossom proceeded to sea and reached the Aleutian Islands 

 on the 22nd. 



In the year 1828 the Blossom left St. Peter and St. Paul Harbour 

 on July 18th. In crossing over to the American shore the tempera 

 ture was found to be 21° higher. The ship arrived at Kotzebue 

 Sound on the 5th of August. Leaving on the 16th, the pack-edge 

 was reached on the 18th in lat. 70° 6', or 24 miles south of its 

 position on the 13th of the same month last year. On October 4th 

 the thermometer fell to 25° in Kotzebue Sound. The ship left on the 

 6th, and reached the Aleutian Islands on the 14th. The following- 

 are Captain Beechey's remarks on the currents in Behring Strait : — 

 " It does not appeal from our passages across the sra of Kam>- 



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