564 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP. Off here we observed a number of shags, a few albatrosses, flocks 
of ortolans, and a sea otter. 
Oct At daylight on the 14th, we saw the Aleutian Islands, and steered 
for an opening which by our reckoning should have been the same 
strait through w'hich we passed on a former occasion ; but the islands 
being covered more than half way down with a dense fog, we were 
unable to ascertain our position correctly ; and it was not until the 
latitude was determined by observation that we discovered we w^ere 
steering for the wrong passage. This mistake was occasioned by a 
current S. 34° W. true, at the rate of nearly three miles an hour, which 
in the last twelve hours had drifted the ship thirty-five miles to the 
westward of her expected position. Fortunately the wind was fair, and 
enabled us to correct our error by carrying a press of sail. Before 
sunset we got sight of the Needle Rock in the channel of Oonemak, 
and passed throught the strait. The strength and uncertainty of the 
currents about these islands should make navigators very cautious how 
they approach them in thick weather : whenever there is any doubt, the 
most certain course is to steer due east, and make the Island of Oonemak, 
which may be known by its latitude, being thirty miles more northerly 
than any other part of the chain ; and then to keep along its shores at the 
distance of four or five miles, until the Needle Rock, which lies nearly 
opposite the Island ofCoogalga, is passed ; after which the coast on both 
sides trends nearly east and west, and a ship has an open sea before her. 
The Aleutian Islands, when we passed, were covered about two- 
thirds of the way down with snow, and indicated an earlier winter than 
they had done the preceding year. 
Having taken our final leave of Beering’s Strait, all hope of the 
attainment of the principal object of the expedition in the Polar Sea w as 
at an end ; and the fate of the expedition under Captain Franklin, which 
was then unknown to us, w'as a subject of intense interest. Amidst the 
disappointment this failure in meeting with him had occasioned us, we 
had the consolation of knowing that whatever vicissitude might have 
