A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
We stood on all night, under an easy sail, to the S.S.W., having the wind
westerly. At midnight we sounded, and had sixty fathoms; and, at day-break
of the 13th, we saw the second of the Kurile Islands, (called by the
Russians Paramousir,) extending from N.W. by W. to W. 1/2 S. This land is
very high, and almost entirely covered with snow. At noon, the extremes
bore from N.N.W. 1/2 W. to W.N.W. 1/2 W.; and a high peaked mountain, from
which some thought they saw smoke issuing, N.W. by W. 1/2 W., about twelve
or fourteen leagues distant. At this time our latitude, by observation, was
49 deg. 49', and our longitude 157 deg. O'. In the course of the day we saw many
gulls and albatrosses, and several whales.
Paramousir is the largest of the Kuriles under the dominion of Russia, and
well deserves a more accurate survey, than we were at this time allowed to
take. For, in the afternoon, the gale increasing from the W., we were never
able to approach it nearer than we had done at noon; and were, therefore,
obliged to be contented with endeavouring to ascertain its situation at
that distance. We place the S. end of the island in latitude 49 deg. 58', the
N. end in latitude 50 deg. 46', and in longitude 10' W. of Lopatka; and as this
position is found not to differ materially from that given by the Russians,
it is probably very near the truth. Whilst we were abreast of this island,
we had a very heavy swell from the N.E., though the wind had, for some
time, been from the westward, a circumstance which we have already remarked
more than once during the course of our voyage. In the night we tried for
soundings, but found no ground with fifty fathoms of line.
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