246 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, western Diomede was seen through the fog close to us. In our passage 
from St. Lawrence Island to this situation, the depth of the sea in- 
•fuiy, creased a little, until to the northward of King’s Island, after which it 
1826 • • • • • ^ 
began to decrease ; but in the vicinity of the Diomede Islands, where the 
strait became narrowed, it again deepened, and continued between 
twenty-five and twenty-seven fathoms. The bottom, until close to the 
Diomedes, was composed of fine sand, but near them it changed to coarse 
stones and gravel, as at St. Lawrence Island; transitions which, by being 
attended to, may be of service to navigators in foggy weather. 
During the day we saw a great number of whales, seals, and birds ; 
but none, I believe, that are not mentioned in Pennant’s Arctic Zoology. 
We noticed upon the island abreast of us, which we conjectured 
to be the westernmost Diomede, several tents and yourts, and, also, 
two or three baidars, hauled upon the beach. On the declivity of the hill 
w ere several frames, apparently for drying fish and skins, and depositing 
canoes and sledges upon. It was nearly calm when we were off this place, 
but the current, which still ran to the northward, carried us fast along 
the land. I steered for the situation of the supposed additional island, 
until by our reckoning we ought to have been upon it, and then hauled 
over towards the American shore. In the evening the fog cleared away, 
and our curiosity was at last satisfied. The extremities of the two 
great continents were distinctly seen, and the islands in the strait 
clearly ascertained to be only three in number, and occupying nearly 
the same situations in which they were placed in the chart of Captain 
Cook. 
The south-eastern of the three islands is a high square rock ; the 
next, or middle one, is an island with perpendicular cliffs, and a flat sur- 
face; and the third, or north-western, which is the largest, is three miles 
long, high to the southward, and terminates, in the opposite direction, 
in low cliffs with small rocky points off them. East Cape in almost 
every direction is so like an island, that I have no doubt it was the 
occasion of the mistake which the Kussian navigator has committed. 
For the sake of convenience, I named each of these islands. Ihe 
eastern one I called F airway Rock, as it is an excellent guide to the eastern 
channel, which is the widest and best ; the centre one I named after 
