THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
191 
they found themfelves to leeward of the bay, and that, 1779. 
when they got abreafl of it the following day, and faw the 
entrance choaked up with ice, they flood off, after firing 
guns, concluding we could not be here; but finding after¬ 
ward it was only loofe drift-ice, they had ventured in. The 
next day, the weather was fo very unfettled, attended with Sunday .2, 
heavy fhowers of fnow, that the carpenters were not able 
to proceed in their work. The thermometer flood at 28° 
in the evening, and the frofl was exceedingly fevere in the 
night. 
The following morning, on our obferving two fledges Monday 3, 
drive into the village, Captain Clerke fent me on fhore, to 
inquire whether any mefTage was arrived from the Com¬ 
mander of Kamtfchatka, which, according to the Serjeant’s 
account, might now be expe6led, in confequence of the in¬ 
telligence that had been fent of our arrival. Bolcheretfk, 
by the ufual route, is about one hundred and thirty-five 
Englifh miles from Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s. Our dif- 
patches were fent off in a fledge drawn by dogs, on the 29th, 
about noon. And the anfwer arrived, as we afterward 
found, early this morning; fo that they were only a little 
more than three days and a half in performing a journey of 
two hundred and feventy miles. 
The return of the Commander’s anfwer was, however* 
concealed from us for the prefent; and I was told, on my 
arrival at the Serjeant’s, that we fhould hear from him the 
next day. Whilfl I was on diore, the boat, which had 
brought me, together with another belonging to the Difco- 
very, were fet fall in the ice, which a Southerly wind had 
driven from the other fide of the bay. On feeing them 
entangled, the Difcovery’s launch had been fent to their 
afliftance, but foon fhared the fame fate; and, in a fhort 
time. 
