INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ALBATROSS. Zoe 
of porpoises passed, always at a safe distance from the ship, and sea 
birds hovered about night and day. A solitary shark was reported off 
Mendocino. 
We commenced coaling at 10:15 a. m., May 10, and finished at 9:15 
a.m. on the 13th, having taken on board 192 tons, 25 tons being in 
bags on deck, At 3:15 p. m. the same day we left Departure Bay for 
Bering Sea. 
Schools of herring were seen in the Gulf of Georgia during the even- 
ing, pursued by sharks and porpoises. Among the latter several were 
observed with peculiar markings, the head, back, and sides being 
black or very dark; belly, tips of fins, and tip of tail white. It may 
be a common species, but I do not remember to have seen it before. 
Passing Seymour Narrows at 5:20 the following morning, we steamed 
through Johnstone and Broughton straits, Queen Charlotte Sound, 
and Goletas Channel, entering the Pacific at 5 p.m. We were under 
one boiler, as usual, consuming about 12 tons of coal per day. 
The customary foggy and misty weather was encountered, with light 
to moderate SE. to SW. winds. <A plover was captured on the 18th in 
latitude 52° 45’ N., longitude 148° W. Whales were seen, and a couple 
of large white albatrosses were about the ship for an hour or more. 
Floating kelp was observed for the first time since leaving Vancouver 
Island. Light flurries of snow passed occasionally and many evidences 
of our northerly course were apparent. Gulls were first noticed on the 
19th and little auks on the 20th. 
The high land of Sannakh Island was sighted on the morning of the 
21st, and a line of soundings and dredgings, commenced in 483 fath- 
oms, was carried over the position assigned to Anderson Rock, and 
thence to the westward of the islands through Unimak Pass into Ber- 
ing Sea. The weather was squally and misty at times while working 
in the region of Anderson Rock, but there were frequent intervals 
when it was quite clear, and from the masthead we commanded a view 
of the horizon for 10 miles or more in every direction, but without 
detecting any surface signs of rocks or shoals; neither did the sound- 
ings indicate anything of the kind. Our observations do not prove the 
non-existence of the danger referred to, but simply show that it does 
not lie in the position indicated. The evidence seems so conclusive as 
to the existence of rocks somewhere in that vicinity that I am inclined 
to the belief that they will eventually be found and located properly. 
Our investigations are gradually narrowing the limits in which they 
may be searched for. 
Bering Sea.—F rom Unimak Pass we took the general direction of the 
100-fathom curve, carrying our investigations about 80 miles to the 
northward and westward, when a gale sprang up from that direction, 
and to save fuel we turned from it and ran a line of soundings and 
dredgings in the direction of Unalaska, finally anchoring in Iliuliuk 
Harbor at 7:40 p. m., May 23. We went to the coal wharf as soon as it 
