PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
341 
to the prevalence of fogs, that caused many of the misfortunes which CHAP. 
befel the early Eussian navigators. Shelekolf, in speaking of the strait 
to the westward of Oonemak, through which we passed, observes that it is 
^ • 1 1 1 • 1 - 1826 . 
free from the danger of rocks and shoals, but is troubled with a strong 
current. In our passage through it, however, we did not remark that 
this was the case ; but no doubt there are just grounds for the obser- 
vation*. 
After running five miles, breakers were seen upon both bows, and, at 
the same time, very high cliffs above them. We stood on a little further, 
and then, satisfied that the land must be that of Oonemak, bore up along 
it, and passed through the strait. We had no soundings with forty 
fathoms of line until we were about four miles off the S. W. end of the 
island ; and there we found thirty fathoms on a bank of dark-coloured 
lava, pebbles, and scoriae, but immediately lost it again, and had no 
bottom afterwards. The south-west angle of Oonemak is distinguished 
by a wedge-shaped cape, with a pointed rock off it. This cape and 
the island of Coogalga form the narrowest part of the strait, which 
is nine miles and a half across. Coogalga is about four miles long, 
and rendered very conspicuous by a peak on its N. E. extremity. 
Acouan, the island to the northward of this, which also forms part 
of the strait, is high and remarkable ; but on this occasion we did not 
see it, in consequence of the bright haze that hung over the hills on 
the northern part of the chain. 
Oonemak was the only island upon which snow was observed. Its 
summit was capped about one-third down, even with a line of clouds 
which formed a canopy over the northern half of the groupe. The 
limits of this canopy were so well defined, that in passing through the 
strait on one side of us there was a dense fog, while on the other the 
sun was shining bright from a cloudless sky. 
As soon as we had fairly entered the Pacific the wind abated, and 
we had a fine clear night, as if in passing through the chain that 
divides the Kamschatkan Sea from the Pacific we had left behind us the 
* I afterwards learned from a very respectable master of an American brig, that in 
passing through the strait to the westward of Oonalaska he experienced a current running 
to the northward at the rate of six miles an hour, and was unable to stem it. 
