I20 AVOYAGETOTHE 



^ ^,^ ^' At low water the fhoal was dry for about a mile and a 



*— ^ — ' half, extending from North Kaft to South Weft. It ap- 



Auguii, peared to be a bank of black muddy fand, flat on every 



Thurfdayio. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ water fo fmooth all round, that if we had 



drifted on it, in all probability we fhould not have received 

 any injury. However, as we had little wind, and fine 

 clear weather, I fent my whale-boat to found all round it. 

 V/ithin this fhoal to the Weftward the land appeared very 

 high, and in many places covered with fnow. Near the 

 fea was a narrow flip of low land covered with pines, and 

 there appeared fome openings like harbours; but time 

 would not admit of my fending the boat to examine them. 

 I faw a rock from the mafli-head, which is covered before 

 high water in the direction of North half Eaft, from the 

 Eaftern point of that ifland to the Southward of us, and 

 forms part of a flioal that appears to ftretch out two or 

 three miles. A rock was alfo feen about half a mile 

 from the South point of Trading Bay, which, to- 

 gether with the flioal s, makes the navigatidii in this part 

 of the river much more dangerous than it was fuppofed to 

 be. Whilft we lay at anchor, feveral fmall canoes came 

 off from a town near the South point of Trading Bay. In 

 one of them was a man whom I had found very ufeful in 

 procuring furs during our ftay in the bay ; on which ac- 

 count he was called '^ ihe Factor." I clearly underftood 

 from him, that the Ruflians frequented the Weft: flde of 

 the ifland to the Southward, and that there is a paflage 

 betwixt that and the main; if fo, I think it muft be 

 greatly incommoded with fhoals, and dangerous on ac- 

 count of the rapidity of the tides. My friend the Fador 

 brought nothing to difpofe of except a few falmon. It 

 feems, his principal motive in paying me this viflt was, to 



beg 



