the vast fields of seaweed surrounding them all, which certainly helps
to keep the sea down during gales, but renders navigation most difficult
on account of its concealment of hidden dangers. These islands are aptly
named, the word "Kurile" being Kamschatkan for smoke; and whether it be
regarded as given in consequence of the numerous volcanoes which pour
their fumes into the air, or the all-prevailing fog fostered by the Kuro
Siwo, or Japanese counterpart of the Gulf stream, the designation is
equally appropriate.

We entered the Okhotsk Sea by the Nadeshda Channel, so-named after
Admiral Krusenstern's ship, which was the first civilized vessel that
passed through its turbulent waters. It separates the islands Rashau and
Mantaua by about twenty miles, yet so conflicting and violent are the
currents which eddy and swirl in all parts of it, that without a
steady, strong, fair wind it is most dangerous to a sailing vessel.
Thenceforward the navigation was free from difficulty, or at least none
that we could recognize as such, so we gave all our attention to the
business which brought us there.

Scarcely any change was needed in our equipment, except the substitution
of longer harpoons for those we had been using, and the putting away
of the bomb-guns. These changes were made because the blubber of the
bowhead is so thick that ordinary harpoons will not penetrate beyond it
to the muscle, which, unless they do, renders them liable to draw, upon
a heavy strain. As for the bombs, Yankees hold the mysticetae in such
supreme contempt that none of them would dream of wasting so expensive
a weapon as a bomb upon them. I was given to understand by my constant
crony, Mistah Jones, that there was no more trouble in killing a bowhead
than in slaughtering a sheep; and that while it was quite true that
accidents DID occur, they were entirely due to the carelessness or
clumsiness of the whalemen, and not in any way traceable to a desire on
the victim's part to do any one harm.

The sea was little encumbered with ice, it being now late in June, so
that our progress was not at all impeded by the few soft, brashy floes
that we encountered, none of them hard enough to do a ship's hull any
damage. In most places the sea was sufficiently shallow to permit of our
anchoring. For this purpose we used a large kedge, with stout hawser for
cable, never furling all the sails in case of a strong breeze suddenly
springing up, which would cause us t