ct, and was covered with snow, from the summits
of the highest hills, down to a very small distance from the sea
coast.

Having occasion to send a boat on board the Discovery, one of the
people in her shot a very beautiful bird of the hawk kind. It is
somewhat less than a duck, and of a black colour, except the fore-part
of the head, which is white, and from above and behind each eye arises
an elegant yellowish-white crest, revolved backward as a ram's horn.
The bill and feet are red. It is, perhaps, the _alca monochroa_ of
Steller, mentioned in the history of Kamtschatka.[3] I think the first
of these birds was seen by us a little to the southward of Cape St
Hermogenes. From that time, we generally saw some of them every day,
and sometimes in large flocks. Besides these, we daily saw most of
the other sea-birds, that are commonly found in other northern oceans,
such as gulls, shags, puffins, sheerwaters, and sometimes ducks,
geese, and swans. And seldom a day passed without seeing seals,
whales, and ether large fish.

[Footnote 3: P. 158. Eng. Trans.--The Tufted Aek.--_Pennant's Arct.
Zool._ ii. N deg.. 432.]

In the afternoon, we got a light breeze of wind southerly, which
enabled us to steer W., for the channel that appeared between the
islands and the continent; and, at day-break next morning, we were
at no great distance from it, and found several other islands,
within those already seen by us, of various extent both in height and
circuit. But between these last islands, and those before seen, there
seemed to be a clear channel, for which I steered, being afraid to
keep the coast of the continent aboard, lest we should mistake some
point of it for an island, and, by that means, be drawn into some
inlet, and lose the advantage of the fair wind, which at this time
blew.

I therefore kept along the southernmost chain of islands, and at noon
we were in the latitude of 55 deg. 18', and in the narrowest part of the
channel, formed by them and those which lie along the continent, where
it is about a league and a half, or two leagues over. The largest
island in this group was now on our left, and is distinguished by
the name of _Kodiak_,[4] according to the information we afterwards
received. I left the rest of them without names. I believe them to be
the same that Beering calls Schumagin's Islands,[5] or those which he
called by that name, to be a part of them, for this group is pretty
extensive. We saw islands as f