REACHING THE OCEAN’S BED. 
319 
encG Ijetwoeu tliein. It was a A-ast marine plain that Ave 
were sailing OA'er, ami the land itself Avas low and leAxd 
and not elevated more than a feAv feet above the sea. I 
had expected to find a country of Amlcanoes and a dangerous 
and variable bottom. Possibly there Avere volcanoes in the 
interior and an uneven bottom farther out to sea; but, 
for the last fcAV daj^s of our passage from Japan, the lead 
had told us that Ave were sailing over a beautifullv smooth 
and inclined plain. We were agreeably disappointed in 
all this ; and, the heavy “ chop-sea” thi'ough which we had 
rolled for the last week having left us, and the day still 
continuing beautifully cleai', we began to flatter our- 
selves that coasting along Ivamtschatka was going to 
be a very fine thing. But, before I follow this coasting 
any further, let me say a few words about the depth of 
water, &c. between the Straits of La Perouse and the 
point where we rubbed our eyes, some one hundred 
miles to the northward of Cape Lapatka, the southern 
extremity of the peninsula along which we were run- 
ning. 
As I have already remarked, we were engaged eight 
days in the passage, being under sail only, as it was 
necessary to reserve our coal for the actual work of sur- 
veying. During these eight days we sounded with deep- 
sea twine whenever the ordinary line failed to get bot- 
tom, and thus kept up the “line of soundings” with groat 
success: only once did we fail, and then twelve hundred 
flithoms were run out with no sign of bottom ; the breeze 
blew quite fresh, and caused us to drift away from the 
lead too fast. Both before and after this failure, how- 
ever, less line brought up specimens of the ocean's bed. 
