CONTINUING ON COURSE 73 



thereby to try a more southerly course, until according to the 

 reckoning we should be opposite the open strait, i'*^ where other 

 winds might be looked for, the more so as in the fall continued 

 north and northeast winds have been observed in Kamchatka 

 as well as during the Captain Commander's first voyage. 



About three hours after midnight on August 19 we got a 

 favorable east wind with which we sailed due west, but towards 

 noon it began to go down. The horizon cleared, enabling us to 

 recognize rather distinctly the mainland to the north of us.^^° 

 We were also warned of its nearness by the sudden drift towards 

 us of seaweeds and refuse from shore, as well as by many animals 



149 The MS reads "Canal Uries" (i.e. Vries; "Det[roit] d'Uriez" on 

 Delisle's map, PI. I). Vries Strait was the name given to the strait be- 

 tween Company Land (the modern Urup; see, above, footnote 27) on 

 the east and State Island (the modern Iturup and Kunashiri considered 

 as one) on the west. (Dehsle's appHcation, PI. I, of the name to the 

 strait between Yezo and State Island is unusual; this strait was generally- 

 called Canal Pieck or Pico after Vries's peak Antony on Yezo.) The ex- 

 aggerated expansion eastward of Company Land and its identification 

 with De Gama Land as the northwestern part of North America (see, 

 above, footnotes 27, 28, and 148) made Vries Strait, therefore, according 

 to this conception, the first open channel leading past the land barrier of 

 America on the west. Steller often refers to it simply as "the Channel." 

 (J) 



150 From the position of the St. Peter at noon on August 19 (civil time) 

 it was not possible to see land to the north. The vessel was then in about 

 lat. 52° 15' N., long. 159° W. (see Vol. i. PI. I; the latitude is calculated 

 from the latitude by observation on August 18 as given in Khitrov's 

 journal, ibid., p, 128, which differs by 7' from the latitude by dead 

 reckoning given for August 19 in Yushin's journal, p. 129). The arc of 

 visibility which extends out from the land farthest toward this position 

 is that of Pavlov Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula in about 5Sy4° N. 

 and 162° W., 8900 feet high (on the calculation of arcs of visibility see, 

 above, footnote 58). But the radius of this arc is only 108 nautical miles, 

 while the St. Peter was about 215 nautical miles away. The land nearest 

 to the St. Peter was the Shumagin Islands, but their highest point, a 

 2270-foot mountain in the center of Unga Island, is only visible 54 

 nautical miles, and from that peak the vessel was 195 nautical miies 

 away. It must therefore be concluded that Steller was again misled in 

 his belief that he had seen land. (J) 



