THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
239 
This day we faw a great number of gulls, and were wit- 1779. 
nefles to the difgufting mode of feeding of the ardtic gull, , ^ une ‘ , 
which has procured it the name of the parafite, and which, 
if the reader is not already acquainted with it, he will find 
in the note below *. 
On the 25th, at one o’clock in the afternoon, being in la- Friday 25. 
titude 59 0 12, longitude 168 0 35', the wind frefhening from 
the fame quarter, a thick fog fucceeded; and this unfortu¬ 
nately juft at the time we expedled to fee Olutorlkoi Nofs, 
which, if Muller places it right in latitude 59 0 30', and in 
longitude 167° 36", could only have then been twelve leagues 
from us ; at which diftance, land of a moderate height 
might eafily have been feen. But if the fame error in lon¬ 
gitude prevails here, which we have hitherto invariably 
found, it would have been much nearer us, even before the 
fog came on; and as we faw no appearance of land at that 
time, it muft either have been very low, or there muft be 
fome miftake of latitude in Muller’s account. We tried 
foundings, but had no ground with one hundred and fixty 
fathoms of line. 
The weather ftill thickening, and preventing a nearer ap¬ 
proach to the land, at five we fteered Eaft by North, which 
is fomewhat more Eafterly than the Ruffian charts lay down 
the trending of the coaft from Olutorfkoi Nofs. The next Saturday 26. 
day, we had a frefli gale from the South Weft, which lafted 
till the 27th at noon, when the fogs clearing away, we flood Sunday 27. 
to the Northward, in order to make the land. The lati¬ 
tude at noon, by obfervation,'was 59 0 49", longitude 175 0 43b 
* This bird, which is fomewhat larger than the common gull, purfues the latter kind 
whenever it meets them ; the gull, after flying for fome time, with loud fcreams, and evi¬ 
dent marks of great terror, drops its dung, which its purfuer immediately darts at, and 
catches before it falls into the fea. 
Notw ithftanding 
