PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
545 
the outer part is in good preservation, and serves the natives for bows CH.^P. 
and fishing staves. XVIII. 
A^^e saw several reindeer upon the hilly ground ; in the lakes, wild 
ducks ; and upon the low point of the inner harbour, golden plover, and 
sanderlings, and a gull very much resembling the larus sabini. 
The survey of these capacious harbours occupied us until the 5th, 
when we had completed nearly all that was necessary, and the weather set 
in with such severity that I was anxious to get back to Kotzebue Sound. 
For the three preceding days the weather had been cold, with heavy 
falls of snow ; and the seamen, the boats’ crews in particular, suffered 
from their exposure to it, and from the harassing duty which was indis- 
pensable from the expeditious execution of the survey. On this day, 
the 5th, the thermometer stood at 25 ^°, and the lakes on shore 
were frozen. We accordingly weighed, but not being able to get out, 
passed a sharp frosty night in the entrance ; and next morning, 
favoured with an easterly wind, weighed and steered for the strait. 
As we receded from Point Spencer, the difficulty of distinguishing it 
even at a short distance accounted for this excellent port having been 
overlooked by Cook, who anchored within a very few miles of the en- 
trance. 
As we approached Beering’s Strait the wind increased, and on 
rounding Cape Prince of Wales, reduced our sails to the close reef 
On leaving Port Clarence the wind had been from the eastward, but it 
now drew to the northward, and obliged the ship to carry sail, in order 
to weather the Diomede Islands. Whilst we were thus pressed, John 
Dray, one of the seamen, unfortunately fell overboard from the look- 
out at the masthead, and sunk alongside a boat which was sent to him, 
after having had his arms round two of the oars. This was the only 
accident of the kind that had occurred since the ship had been in com- 
mission, and it was particularly unfortunate that it should have fallen to 
the lot of so good a man as Dray. Previous to his entry in the ship he 
resided some time at the Marquesas Islands, and was so well satisfied vvith 
the behaviour of the natives of that place that he purposed living amongst 
them ; but being on board a boat belonging to Baron Wrangel’s ship, at the 
time when the islanders made a most unjustifiable attack upon her, he was 
