Finding ourselves so near land, I sent a boat to examine what it produced. In the afternoon she returned, and the officer who commanded her reported, that it produced some tolerably good grass and several other small plants, one of which was like purslain, and ate very well, either in soups or as a salad. There was no appearance of shrubs or trees, but on the beach were a few pieces of drift-wood. It was judged to be low water between ten and eleven o’clock; and we found, where we lay at anchor, that the flood-tide came from the E. or S. E. In the night, the wind blew fresh at S., but was more moderate toward the morning, and the fog partly dispersed. Having weighed at seven o’clock, we steered to the northward, between the island under which we had anchored, and another small one near it. The channel is not above a mile broad; and before we were through it, the wind failed, and we were obliged to anchor in thirty-four fathoms water. We had now land in every direction; that to the S. extended to the S. W., in a ridge of mountains, but our sight could not determine whether it composed one or more islands. We afterward found it to be only one island, and known by the name of _Oonalashka_. Between it and the land to the N., which had the appearance of being a group of islands, there seemed to be a channel in the direction of N. W. by N. On a point which bore W. from the ship, three quarters of a mile distant, were several natives and their habitations. To this place we saw them tow in two whales, which we supposed they had just killed. A few of them now and then came off to the ships, and bartered a few trifling things with our people; but never remained above a quarter of an hour at a time. On the contrary, they rather seemed shy, and yet we could judge that they were no strangers to vessels, in some degree, like ours. They behaved with a degree of politeness uncommon to savage tribes. At one o’clock in the afternoon, having a light breeze at N. E., and the tide of flood in our favour, we weighed and steered for the channel above mentioned, in hopes, after we were through, of finding the land trend away to the northward, or, at least, a passage out to sea to the W. For we supposed ourselves, as it really happened, to be amongst islands, and not in an inlet of the continent. We had not been long under sail before the wind veered to the N., which obliged us to ply. The soundings were from forty to twenty-seven fathoms, over a bottom of sand and mud. In the evening, the ebb making against us, we anchored about three leagues from our last station, with the passage bearing N. W.