NEARING THE LAND 35 



Councils and commissions, that were so often called on shore in 

 case of trivial matters, were neglected now when we had come 

 to the most important business and the culmination of the ten 

 years' Kamchatka Expedition, and it was quite plain that we had 

 nothing in common and nothing to keep us united except that 

 we were locked up together on the same ship. 



Since after July 16 more noteworthy happenings occurred 

 daily than during the six preceding weeks, I shall from now on 

 continue my record according to what took place each day.^^ 



On the 17th, the wind being Hght, we gradually drew nearer 

 the land. On Saturday, the i8th, we were so close to it towards 

 evening, that we were enabled to view with the greatest pleasure 

 the beautiful forests close down to the sea, as well as the great 

 level ground in from the shore at the foot of the mountains. The 

 beach itself was flat, level, and, as far as we could observe, sandy. 

 We kept the mainland to the right and sailed northwesterly in 

 order to get behind a high island ^^ which consisted of a single 

 mountain covered with spruce trees only. This had to be accom- 

 plished by continuous tacking, as the wind was contrary, the 

 coming night being consumed with this. 



On Sunday, the 19th, we were opposite the northwestern^* 

 end of the island, about two miles distant. This morning there 

 arose again a petty quarrel. We had already noticed the day 

 before the channel between the mainland and the island, and the 

 thought occurred at once to me that a notably large stream must 

 be flowing from the land into the channel, the current of which 

 could be observed two miles from shore while the difference in 

 the water could be inferred partly from the floating matter and 

 partly from the lesser salinity; it was consequently my opinion 



«2 It will be found helpful in following this record to refer to the daily 

 entries in the log book in Vol. i, as the log book and Steller's journal often 

 supplement each other. In so doing the overlapping of the astronomical 

 dates used in the log book and the civil dates used by Steller (see, below, 

 footnote 131) should be borne in mind. 



63 Kayak Island. 



" Northeastern or southwestern? 



