468 
A VOYAGE TO 
1778. 
Auguft. 
^- - - - 
September. 
Tuefday 1. 
ftill continued low, but lefs fo than farther Weft ward. For 
the two preceding days, the mean height of the mercury 
in the thermometer had been very little above the freez¬ 
ing point, and often below it; fo that the water, in the vef- 
fels upon the deck, was frequently covered with a iheet 
of ice. 
I continued to fteer South South Eaft, nearly in the di¬ 
rection of the coaft, till five in the afternoon, when land was 
feen bearing South, 50° Eaft, which we prefently found to 
be a continuation of the coaft, and hauled up for it. Being 
abreaft of the Eaftern land, at ten at night, and in doubts of 
weathering it, we tacked, and made a board to the Weft- 
ward, till paft one the next morning, when we flood again 
to the Eaft, and found that it was as much as we could do 
to keep our diftance from the coaft, the wind being exceed¬ 
ingly unfettled, varying continually from North to North 
Eaft. At half an hour paft eight, the Eaftern extreme above 
mentioned bore South by Eaft, fix or feven miles diftant. 
At the fame time, a head-land appeared in fight, bearing 
Eaft by South, half South; and, foon after, we could trace 
the whole coaft lying between them, and a fmall illand at 
fome diftance from it. 
The coaft feemed to form feveral rocky points, connected 
by a low ftiore, without the leaft appearance of a harbour. 
At fome diftance from the fea, the low land appeared to 
fwell into a number of hills. The higheft of thefe were co¬ 
vered with fnow ; and in other refpeCts, the whole country 
feemed naked. At feven in the evening, two points of 
land, at fome diftance heyond the Eaftern head, opened off 
it in the direction of South, 37 0 Eaft. I was now well af- 
fured, of what I had believed before, that this was the 
country of the Tfchutfki, or the North Eaft coaft of Alia; 
and 
