THE LAST STRETCH 129 



stood well enough, partly from the bad terms they were on with 

 the Captain Commander and partly from the jealousy between 

 Lieutenant Waxel and Master Khitrov.^^* 



On October 31, as well as on November i, 2, and 3, nothing 

 unusual occurred except that our patients were dying off very 

 rapidly295 and many at a time, so that it was scarcely possible to 

 manage the ship or make any change in the sails. At God's 

 mercy, under two leaders, betrayed and sold, we proceeded north- 

 ward, through the 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, and as far as the 

 56th parallel. On November 4, in the middle of the night, we 

 started to run W by S with a suitable wind.^^^ On the 5th in the 

 morning the order was given to shorten sail so as not to run on 

 the land. Everybody stood on deck and looked about for the 

 land, as the thing was announced with very great mathematical 

 certainty. To our great astonishment it chanced that towards 

 nine o'clock land was seen.^^^ It is impossible to describe how 

 great and extraordinary was the joy of everybody at this sight. 

 The half-dead crawled up to see it, and all thanked God heartily 

 for this great mercy. The Captain Commander, who was a very 

 sick man, became not a little aroused, and all talked of how, 



294 In the MS the sentence is here completed with the clause: "and 

 our subsequent ruin is therefore attributable more to artificial than to 

 natural winds." 



295 xhe log book (Vol. i, pp. 204, 206, 208) and Waxel's report (ibid., 

 p. 281) record the death of four persons in these four days (civil dates). 



296 Thus, according to Steller, the course was northward from the 

 morning of October 30 (see, above, p. 125 combined with p. 127) — 

 equivalent in his chronology to the time of sighting the two islands — to 

 the middle of the night of November 4 (p. 129), agreeing with his pre- 

 vious reference (p. 127) to the "five days' course . . . directly north." 

 This does not agree with the log book. According to this record the 

 northward course lasted 334 days — from the time of sighting the two 

 islands (actually, on the morning of October 29) to 5 p. m. of November 

 I (civil date, or November 2, astronomical date; see Vol. i, p. 206). It 

 was on that date, and not on November 4, according to the log book, that 

 the course was changed to westward (see also Vol. i, PI. I). (J) 



297 Copper Island (Medni Island); see Vol. i, p. 208, footnote 120. 

 According to the log book it was the morning of November 4 (both civil 

 and astronomical date). 



