no STELLER'S JOURNAL 



drift, at which hour we calculated we were 258 miles from 

 Avacha.248 



* On the 15th we enjoyed a pleasant day. Towards noon the 

 long-wished-for sun appeared again. ^^^ The unusual chilliness 

 gave hope of a northerly wind, with the aid of which we might 

 gradually get back on our old course. This might perhaps also 

 have happened thus if we had been farther west in the Channel ^^o 

 or a couple of degrees farther south. As it was, however, we 

 were too near land, so that towards evening even an owl^^^ 



248 The MS reads "288 miles." This is clearly an error, as the MS itself 

 reads farther up that on September 11 the vessel was only 278 miles from 

 Avacha. The figure in the printed version agrees exactlj^ with that given 

 in the log book (Vol. i, p. 157). 



* Since one half of a leaf in the German original was greatly damaged 

 all matter concerning September 15th and i6th, as well as concerning 

 September 19th to 21st and the 24th had to be supplemented from the 

 [Russian] translation. — P. [See also Pallas' footnote, between footnotes 

 132 and 133, above, and the Preface, p. viii, above.] 



24» From here to the end of the paragraph the MS reads: "Towards 

 evening the unusual chilliness increased our hope for a north wind, as 

 with a NVV wind since five o'clock in the morning we had again been able 

 gradually to get back on our course, which perhaps also might have hap- 

 pened thus if we had been 40 [or this might be the figure 10 corrected into 

 2oj miles farther west in the Channel, in which they erroneously tried to 

 persuade themselves to be, [and] a couple of degrees farther south. As it 

 was, however, we were close to and behind the land, which nobody, how- 

 ever, would believe, although towards evening an ow'l, sych, which came 

 from land, appeared for half an hour about our vessel. Man^- river gulls 

 also [showed themselves], and more than two svinki were seen to rush 

 about, carrying on their play for a quarter of an hour and thus causing 

 us to reflect doubly: first, that we were near land and, second, that once 

 more a storm was to be apprehended, because these animals in particular 

 indicate changes at sea and are, as is well known, thereby incited to such 

 play." 



250 See, above, footnote 149. 



251 As just indicated, Steller in the MS adds the Russian word sych. 

 This name Pallas assigns in his "Zoographia rosso-asiatica" specifically 

 to the pearly owl {Cryploglaux tengmalmi (Gmelin) = Stryx passerina 

 Pallas, Zoogr. rosso-asiat.. Vol. 2, 1826, p. 323, but not of Linnaeus), 

 which is a bird of the wooded interior and does not occur in the region 

 visited by Steller. On the other hand the same name is used by the na- 



