neither receive
nor bestow favours, we shall suppose that the imagination of some
potential advantages is quite equivalent to the reality of their
operation. Krusenstern has some sensible remarks on the proper method
of supplying Kamtschatka with well-qualified physicians, but they are
of course foreign to this place, and cannot, therefore, properly be
introduced.--E.

[22] This bird, which is somewhat larger than the common gull, pursues the
latter kind whenever it meets them; the gull, after flying for some
time, with loud screams, and evident marks of great terror, drops its
dung, which its pursuer immediately darts at, and catches before it
falls into the sea.

[23] The distance betwixt the two remarkable points now specified, it will
be proper for the reader to remember, is estimated at 13 leagues, or
about 40 miles, being the nearest approach of the two continents of
Asia and America yet ascertained.--E.

[24] Captain Cook then must still be allowed to have succeeded in getting
farther towards the north in this ocean, than any other navigator.
For, from the date of this voyage up to the present period, so far at
least as has been published, no one has surpassed the limit of his
examination. But it is obvious, from the very circumstance of the
difference betwixt the two attempts recorded in this voyage, that a
considerable variation in the state and intensity of the obstructing
cause may occur in various years. There is a probability then, that a
still greater difference might be experienced, affording a practicable
opportunity of getting still more towards the north than in either of
them. How far this probability, not a great one, as Captain King
afterwards suggests, ought to be considered, or how far the
expectation of any benefit arising from it, ought to influence in
directing another similar undertaking, it is not the province of this
work to speculate. But one cannot help remarking, that the Russian
government at least, might not be injudiciously employed in ordering
one or more vessels, properly fitted up, to be kept in readiness at
some port in this distant region of the empire, to take advantage of
any season more suitable than another, for prosecuting the enterprise.
Nay, is it not far from being romantic to imagine, that the two
friendly powers of Russia and Great Britain