On the 14th and 15th, the wind blowing steadily and fresh from the westward, we were obliged to stand to the southward; and consequently hindered from seeing any more of the Kurile Islands. At noon of the 16th, the latitude, by observation, was 45 deg. 27', the longitude, deduced from a number of lunar observations taken during the three days past, 155 deg. 3O'. The variation 4 deg. 30' E. In this situation, we were almost surrounded by the supposed discoveries of former navigators, and uncertain to which we should turn ourselves. To the southward and the S.W. were placed, in the French charts, a group of five islands, called the Three Sisters, Zellany and Kunashir. We were about ten leagues, according to the same maps, to the westward of the land of De Gama, which we had passed to the eastward in April last, at a distance rather less than this, without seeing any appearance of it; from which circumstance we may now conclude, that, if such land exist at all, it must be an island of a very inconsiderable size.[93] On the other hand, if we give credit to the original position of this land, fixed by Texiera, it lay to the W. by S.; and as the Company's Land,[94] Staten Island,[95] and the famous land of Jeso,[96] were also supposed to lie nearly in the same direction, together with the group first mentioned, according to the Russian charts, we thought this course deserved the preference, and accordingly hauled round to the westward, the wind having shifted in the afternoon to the northward. During this day we saw large flocks of gulls, several albatrosses, fulmars, and a number of fish, which our sailors called grampuses; but, as far as we could judge, from the appearance of those that passed close by the ships, we imagined them to be the _kasatka_, or sword-fish, described by Krascheninnikoff, to whom I refer the reader, for a curious account of the manner in which they attack the whales. In the evening, a visit from a small land-bird, about the size of a goldfinch, and resembling that bird in shape and plumage, made us keep a good look-out for land. However, at midnight, on trying for soundings, we found no ground with forty-five fathoms of line.