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Their fat, at firft, is as fweet as marrow; but in a few days it grows rancid, unless it be falted, in which state it will keep much longer. The lean flesh is coarse, black, and has rather a ftrong taste; and the heart is nearly as well-tafted as that of a bullock. The fat, when melted, yields a good deal of oil, which burns very well in lamps; and their hides, which are very thick, were very ufeful about our rigging. The teeth, or tufks, of moft of them were, at this time, very fmall; even some of the largest and oldeft of thefe animals had them not exceeding fix inches in length. From this we concluded that they had lately fhed their old teeth.

They lie in herds, of many hundreds, upon the ice; huddling one over the other like fwine, and roar or bray very loud; fo that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice before we could fee it. We never found the whole herd asleep; some being always upon the watch. Thefe, on the approach of the boat, would wake those next to them; and the alarm being thus gradually communicated, the whole herd would be awake prefently. They did not appear to us to be that dangerous animal fome authors have defcribed; not even when attacked. They are rather more fo to appearance than in reality. Vaft numbers of them would. follow and come close up to the boats. But the flath of a mufket in the pan, or even pointing one at them, would fend them dowr in an inftant. The female, however, will de fend the young one to the very laft, and at the expence of her own life, whether in the water of upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, though the be dead.

Why

Why they fhould be called fea-horses, is hard to fay; unless the word be a corruption of the Ruffian name Morfe; for they have not the leaft refemblance of a horse. This is, without doubt, the fame animal that is found in the Gulph of, St. Lawrence, and there called fea-cow. It is certainly more like a cow than a horse; but this likeness confifts in nothing but the fnout. In short, it is an animal like a feal, but incomparably larger; weighing fometimes more than one thousand pounds, and measuring ten feet from the fnout to the tail.

By the time that we had got our fea-horses on board, we were in a manner furrounded with the ice; and had no way left to clear it but by ftanding to the fouthward, which was done till three o'clock next morning. At two in the afternoon, we fell in with the main ice; along the edge of which we kept, being partly directed by the roaring of the fea-horses, for we had a very thick fog. Thus we continued failing till near midnight, when we got in amongst the loofe ice, and heard the furge of the fea upon the main ice.

Next morning the fog clearing away, we faw the continent of America, extending from fouth by eaft, to eaft by fouth; and at noon from fouthweft half fouth to eaft; the nearest part five leagues diftant.

I continued to fteer in for it until eight o'clock, in order to get a nearer view of it, and to look for a harbour, but seeing nothing like one, I food again to the north.

The ice obliged us to change our course frequently, till the 27th, when we tacked and stood to the weft, and at seven in the evening we were elofe in with the edge of the ice, which lay east

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from

from north-eaft, and weft fouth-weft, as far each way as the eye could reach. Having but little wind, I went with the boats to examine the ftate of the ice. I found it confifting of loofe pieces of various extent, and fo clofe together, that I could hardly enter the outer edge with a boat; and it was as impoffible for the thips to enter it, as if it had been fo many rocks.

A thick fog, which came on while I was thus employed with the boats, haftened me aboard father fooner than I could have wifhed, with one fea-horfe to each fhip. We had killed more, but could not wait to bring them with us. The number of thefe animals, on all the ice that we had feen, is almost incredible. By this time our peo ple began to relish them. We now ftretched to the fouth-eaft.

On the 29th, the weather, which had been Raży, cleared up. This enabled us to have a pretty good view of the Afiatic coaft: which, in every refpect, is like the oppofite one of America; that is, low land next the fea, with elevated land farther back. It was perfectly deftitute of wood, and even fnow; but was probably covered with a mofly fubftance, that gave it a brownith caft. In the low ground, lying between the high land and the fea, was a lake, extending to the fouth-eaft, farther than we could fee.

The feafon was now fo far advanced, and the when the froft was expected to fet in, fo t hand, that I did not think it confiftent rudence to make any farther attempts to paffage into the Atlantic this year, in any ction; fo little was the profpect of fucceedg. My attention was now directed toward inding out fome place where we might fupply

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ourfelves

ourfelves with wood and water; and the object uppermoft in my thoughts was, how I fhould fpend the winter, fo as to make fome improvements in geography and navigation, and at the fame time be in a condition to return to the north, in farther fearch of a paffage the enfuing fummer.

After ftanding off till we got into eighteen fathoms water, I bore up to the eastward along the coaft of Afia. At day-break on the 30th, we madé fail, and fteered fuch a courfe as I thought would bring us in with the land. For the weather was as thick as ever, and it fnowed inceffantly. At ten we got fight of the coaft, bearing fouth-weft, four miles diftant.

The inland country hereabout is full of hills; fome of which are of a confiderable height. The land was covered with fnow.

September 2d, we had now fair weather and funfhine; and, as we ranged along the coaft, at the diftance of four miles, we faw feveral of the inhabitants, and some of their habitations, which looked like little hillocks of earth. None of them however attempted to come off to us; which feemed a little extraordinary. Thefe people muft be the Tschutski; a nation, that at the time Mr. Muller wrote, the Ruffians had not been able to conquer.

The more I was convinced of my being now upon the coaft of Asia, the more I was at a lofs to reconcile Mr. Staehlin's map of the New Northern Archipelago with my obfervations; and I had no way to account for the great difference, but by fuppofing that I had miftaken fome part of what he calls the Ifland of Alaschka for the American continent, and had miffed the channel

channel that feparates them. Admitting even this, there would ftill have been a confiderable difference. It was with me a matter of fome confequence to clear up this point the prefent feafon, that I might have but one object in view the next. And as the northern ifles are reprefented by him as abounding with wood, I was in hopes, if I fhould find them, of getting a fupply of that article, which we now began to be in great want of on board.

With these views, I fteered over for the American coaft, and on the 6th we got fight of it.

Purfuing our courfe, on the 9th we found ourfelves upon a coaft covered with wood; an agreeable fight, to which of late we had not been accuftomed. Next morning, being about a league from the weft fhore, I took two boats and landed, attended by Mr. King, to feek wood and water. Here we obferved tracks of deer and foxes on the beech, on which alfo lay a great quantity of drift-wood; and there was no want of freth water. I returned on board, with an intention to bring the fhips to an anchor here; but the wind then veering to north-eaft, I ftretched over to the oppofite thore, in hopes of finding wood there alfo, and anchored at eight o'clock in the evening; but next morning we found it to be a peninfula, united to the continent by a low ck of land, on each fide of which the coaft ms a bay, which obtained the name of Cape enbigh.

Several people were feen upon the peninfula; and one man came off in a fmall canoe. I gave him a knife and a few beads, with which he emed well pleated. Having made figns to him

ring us fomething to eat, he immediately

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