62 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



objects as on the outward voyage, and I noticed them afterwards 

 always prior to and before our coming in sight of land, which 

 happened very often. 



During July 30 and 31, as well as on August i, we had beau- 

 tiful, clear weather, a quiet sea, a favorable southeast wind, 

 and made pretty good progress. About one o'clock in the night 

 of August i^-^ it was discovered on sounding that the ship was 

 in four fathoms of water, though it was reported differently to 

 the Captain Commander. The weather being calm, the ship was 

 finally worked out so far from land that we reached eighteen 

 and twenty fathoms, where we dropped anchor and waited for 

 daylight. 



We found ourselves on the morning of August 2 only about 

 three versts distant from a rather large and wooded island. ^^s 

 The weather was unusually pleasant and warm, sunshiny, and 

 absolutely calm. Towards noon a sea lion^^g appeared near the 

 ship and swam continuously around it for more than half an 

 hour. I asked the Captain Commander, as the wind and weather 

 were so favorable, to let me go ashore for a couple of hours in the 

 small boat to continue my investigations, but we got into a slight 

 altercation on the subject with the result that he finally called 

 a sea council in which it was agreed that in the future nobody 

 should upbraid me, as if I, on my part, had not wanted to do my 

 duty most zealously, to the best of my ability, and at every oppor- 

 tunity; this everybody promised, and I let it go at that. Towards 

 evening I caught with the hook two unknown fishes of the same 

 genus as the so-called Scorpii marini (Cottus).^^^ I made at 

 once a description of them and preserved them in spirits, but 



1" i. e. I A.M., August 2, even according to Steller's reckoning by civil 

 time. For a parallel account see the log book entry of that hour (Vol. i, 

 p. Ill); for comment see Vol. i, pp. 334-335- 



128 Chirikov Island, not so named by this expedition (see Vol. i, p. iii, 

 footnote 53). 



129 The northern sea lion (Eumetopias jubata (Schreber)), usually 

 known as E. stelleri (Lesson)). (S) 



"0 The two unknown sculpins are evidently the Hemilepidotus hetni- 

 lepidotus (Tilesius) and Megalocottus platycephalus (Pallas), both names 

 based, at least in part, on Steller's descriptions. (S) 



