74 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



and land birds, and even by a change in the water — evidence 

 which had already so often proved correct. But nobody except 

 myself and a few others would believe or see it, though confirmed 

 by the diminishing force of the wind and its change to and from 

 land.^^i Nevertheless we steered a little more southerly, and, 

 when on August 20 we were so far out that neither the land 

 itself nor the above-mentioned signs of it were visible, I was 

 asked mockingly w^hether I was still seeing land, although I 

 had not laughed when these gentlemen were seeing land even 

 on the 51st parallel or thrown in their faces the fact that they 

 could see no farther than nature and experience permitted them. 



From the 20th to the 23rd we tacked on the parallel of 53°. 

 I saw at this time whales^^^ very frequently, no longer singly but 

 in pairs, swimming together side by side or pursuing one another, 

 which made me think that this must be their mating time. 



On the 25th a heavy storm from the west compelled us to 

 drift. ^^3 The 26th was spent in tacking. On the 27th the horizon 

 was quite clear. The weather was cold and bright, and the wind 

 straight out of the west. In a sea council, held during the day, 

 it was suddenly decided, ^^^ on account of the contrary winds 

 and the threatened shortage of w^ater (as only twenty-six full 



151 In the MS the clause beginning with "though confirmed" reads: 

 "though confirmed by the diminishing wind and its change according to 

 the well-known rule and observation of seamen, namely that near land 

 the wind blows from shore during the day and from the sea towards the 

 shore during the night." Possibly this misstatement of the habitus of 

 land and sea breeze is due to a copyist's error. 



152 It is probable that by the term "Wallfische" Steller means the 

 whalebone whales as distinguished from the dolphins and porpoises. In 

 that case the whales he saw must have been one or more species of the 

 five known from the North Pacific (see F. W. True: The Whalebone 

 Whales of the Western North Atlantic Compared With Those Occurring 

 in European Waters, With Some Observations on the Species of the 

 North Pacific, Smithsonian Contr. to Knowl. No. 141 4, in Vol. 33, Wash- 

 ington, 1904; reference on pp. 269-296). (S) 



153 In the MS the 24th is accounted for in this sentence, which there 

 reads: "We had a heavy storm from the west on the 24th and 25th." 



15* For the text of the decision, see Vol. i, p. 138. 



