PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
339 
fornia, it appeared to be the most desirable place to which a ship under CHAP, 
our circumstances could resort ; and as the coast between that port 
and Cape St. Lucas was very imperfectly known, that the time could not Oct. 
be more usefully employed than in completing the survey of it. I there- 
fore directed our course to that place, and determined to enter the 
Pacific by the Strait of Oonemak; which, if not the safest of those 
formed by the Aleutian Islands, is certainly the best known. 
After passing King’s Island on the 16th, we saw some very large 
flocks of ducks migrating to the southward, and fell in with the lummes, 
which had deserted us more than a month before at Chamisso Island. 
As we approached St. Lawrence Island, the little crested auks flew 
around us, and some land birds took refuge in our rigging. We passed 
to the eastward of this island in very thick weather, and had only a 
transient view of its eastern extremity, and thence pursued a course to 
the southward, passing between Gore’s Island and Nunevack, an island 
recently discovered by the Kussians, but not known to us at that time. 
The soundings increased, though not always regularly ; and we had 
thick misty weather which prevented any thing drying. The barometer 
fluctuated a little on either side of 28,6. On the 18th, the temperature, 
which had risen gradually as we advanced to the southward, was twenty 
degrees higher than it was the day we left Kotzebue Sound — a change 
which was sensibly felt. 
On the 2 1st we came within sight of the island of St. Paul, the 
northern island of a small groupe which, though long known to English 
geographers, has been omitted in some of our most esteemed modern 
charts. The groupe consists of three islands, named St. George’s, St. Paul’s, 
and Sea-otter. We saw only the two latter in this passage, but in the 
following year passed near to the other, and on the opposite side of St. 
Paul’s to that on which our course was directed at this time. The islands 
of St. Paul and St. George are both high, with bold shores, and with- 
out any port, though there is said to be anchoring ground off* both, and 
soundings in the offing at moderate depths. At a distance of twenty- 
five miles from Sea-otter Island, in the direction of N. 37° W. (true), 
and in latitude 59° 22' N., we had fifty- two fathoms hard ground ; after 
this, proceeding southward, the water deepens. St. Paul’s is distin- 
X X 2 
