LANDING ON SHUMAGIN ISLANDS 75 



casks were still on hand), to sail on a northeast course towards 

 the land. This would not have been necessary had we filled at 

 Cape St. Elias those twenty empty barrels which, without reason, 

 were left behind. — This sea council was barely ended, the deci- 

 sion made and signed, when in the afternoon the wind suddenly 

 shifted and with it, consequently, the plan. The ship had no 

 more than put about when the wind shifted once more, blowing 

 again from the west and, by continuing steadily, compelled us, 

 after all, to make a run for the land. 



We kept this course towards the land on the 28th, and toward 

 four o'clock in the evening we saw signs of it, such as sea lions, 

 a species of cod^^^ which lives on the banks at a depth of ninety 

 fathoms at the most, and a black gull (Diomedea) .^^^ Shortly 

 afterwards land itself was seen to the N by E, though very 

 indistinctly. ^^^ During the night, however, we made so much 

 headway that on x^ugust 29 in the morning we could make out 

 plainly five islands, beyond which the mainland appeared ten 

 or twelve miles distant. The weather during the day was very 

 pleasant and perfectly favorable for our purpose of going close 

 to the land in search of a harbor or shelter. About three o'clock 

 in the afternoon we reached the outer one of the aforementioned 

 islands,!^* which lay north and south, and late in the evening we 

 anchored alongside a rocky and bare island, ^^^ three versts to 

 the east of the first one. 



In the early morning of August 30 the start was made to 



155 This is the North Pacific codfish, Gadus macrocephalus Tilesius, if 

 indeed specifically different from the Atlantic G. morrhua Linnaeus. (S) 



156 "(Diomedea)" is not in the MS and is an addition by Pallas. It 

 is very doubtful if Steller meant a black albatross {Diomedea albatrus) 

 as a sign of the nearness of land. More likely it was a young gull {Larus) 

 in the dark plumage. Pallas relates (Zoogr. rosso-asiat., Vol. 2, 1826, 

 p. 308) that Steller in his manuscript on birds refers to the albatross as 

 "Larus maximus niger vel albus." (S) 



i"The log book first mentions the sighting of land, which was the 

 Shumagin Lslands, at 8 a.m., August 29 (civil time) (see Vol. i, p. 140). 



158 Nagai Island (see Vol. i, p. 142, footnote 84, and p. 336; also, 

 below, Fig. 13). 



159 Near Island {ibid.). 



