sail for behring's strait. 
8 
making them presents of tobacco and other trifles, and pro¬ 
mised them still more, if they would dry a considerable quan¬ 
tity of tish and berries against our return. We knew their ex¬ 
treme attachment to tobacco too well, not to be fully assured 
that they would comply with our wishes in this respect. 
The woman who had accompanied us in the preceding year, 
was highly delighted with seeing her family, and returning to 
her home. The liberality of Captain Billings had supplied her 
with many ornaments for her person, and had so richly stocked 
her with tobacco and pearl-enamel, that she became an object 
of universal envy among her female country-women, and was 
esteemed the richest of all the inhabitants. 
We lay at anchor for two weeks, in expectation of Captain 
Hall and the new cutter ; but he not coming, we did not wish 
to lose time, and leaving him the necessary provisions and 
utensils, together with the surgeon Allegretti, and a hunter, in 
llluiik, we resumed our voyage to Behring’s strait. 
CHAP. VI. 
DEPARTURE FROM UNALASCIIKA TOWARDS THE NORTH, 
PAST THE ISLANDS ST. GEORGE, ST. PAUL, ST. MAT¬ 
THEW, FOR THE ISLAND OF ST. LAURENCE.-ARRIVAL 
THERE.'—■ DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE SLAWA 
ROSSI1.-OCCURRENCES DURING THE ANCHORAGE.— 
DEPARTURE FOR THE SHORES OF NORTH AMERICA, 
AND INTERVIEW WITH THE INHABITANTS.—-ANCHOR¬ 
AGE IN ST. LAURENCE BAY. 
On the 8th of July we weighed anchor, and went into the 
sea. Captain Billings desiring to see the two islands lately dis¬ 
covered by the steersman Pribylow : we bore away for them in 
a strait direction. 
On the 9th, we were seventy miles to the north of Una- 
laschka, had 88 fathoms of water on a muddy bottom, and 
saw many sea-lions and sea-bears. This animal, called plixa 
ursina , is seven feet long, and of the seal species. The hair of 
the male is a black grey, that of the female grey, with dark 
spots between the fore-webbed feet. The males have a very 
soft hair on the breast, with a thick and tough skin : the struc¬ 
ture of the bones is also firmer, larger, and stouter than that of 
the female : its head is large and round, the forehead extending 
over the eyes, and the snout having some long white bristles on 
it; the flaps of its ears are rather small, and externally overgrown 
with hair, but internally smooth, and standing out straight and 
pointed. The orifice of the ear is oval, and so constructed, 
