This day we saw a great number of gulls, and were witnesses to the disgusting mode of feeding of the arctic gull, which, has procured it the name of the parasite, and which, if the reader is not already acquainted with it, he will find in the note below.[21] On the 25th, at one o’clock in the afternoon, being in latitude 59° 12ʹ, longitude 168° 35ʹ, the wind freshening from the same quarter, a thick fog succeeded; and this unfortunately just at the time we expected to see Olutorskoi Noss; which, if Muller places it right in latitude 59° 30ʹ, and in longitude 167° 36ʹ, could only have then been twelve leagues from us; at which distance land of a moderate height might easily have been seen. But if the same error in longitude prevails here, which we have hitherto invariably found, it would have been much nearer us, even before the fog came on; and as we saw no appearance of land at that time, it must either have been very low, or there must be some mistake of latitude in Muller’s account. We tried soundings, but had no ground with one hundred and sixty fathoms of line. The weather still thickening, and preventing a nearer approach to the land, at five we steered E. by N., which is somewhat more easterly than the Russian charts lay down the trending of the coast from Olutorskoi Noss. The next day we had a fresh gale from the S. W., which lasted till the 27th at noon, when the fogs clearing away, we stood to the northward, in order to make the land. The latitude at noon, by observation, was 59° 49ʹ, longitude 175° 43ʹ. Notwithstanding we saw shags in the forenoon, which are supposed never to go far from land, yet there was no appearance of it this day; but on the 28th, at six in the morning, we got sight of it to the N. W. The coast shows itself in hills of a moderate height; but inland, others are seen to rise considerably. We could observe no wood, and the snow lying upon them in patches, gave the whole a very barren appearance. At nine, we were about ten miles from the shore, the southern extremity bearing W. by S., six leagues distant, beyond which the coast appeared to trend to the westward. This point being in latitude 61° 48ʹ, longitude 174° 48ʹ, lies, according to the Russian charts, near the mouth of the river Opuka. At the same time, the northern extreme bore N. by W.; between which and a hill bearing N. W. by W. a quarter W., and at this distance appearing to us like an island, the coast seemed to bend to the westward, and form a deep bay.