lik 288

Nomahanna, Queen of the Sandwich Islands,
To face Title of Vol. II.

KAMTSCHATKA.

KAMTSCHATKA.

The wind, which continued favourable to us as far as the Northern
Tropic, was succeeded by a calm that lasted twelve days. The ocean, as
far as the eye could reach, was as smooth as a mirror, and the heat
almost insupportable. Sailors only can fully understand the
disagreeableness of this situation. The activity usual on shipboard gave
place to the most wearisome idleness. Every one was impatient; some of
the men felt assured that we should never have a wind again, and wished
for the most violent storm as a change.

One morning we had the amusement of watching two great sword-fish
sunning themselves on the surface of the water. I sent out a boat, in
the hope that the powerful creatures would, in complaisance, allow us
the sport of harpooning them, but they would not wait; they plunged
again into the depths of the sea, and we had disturbed their enjoyments
in vain.

Our water-machine was several times let down, even to the depth of a
thousand fathoms: on the surface, the temperature was 24 deg., and at
this depth, only 2 deg. of Reaumur.

On the 22nd of May, the anniversary of our frigate's leaving Stopel, we
got a fresh easterly wind, which carried us forward pretty quickly on
the still smooth surface of the sea.

On the 1st of June, when in latitude 42 deg. and longitude 201 deg., and
consequently opposite the coast of Japan, we descried a red stripe in
the water, about a mile long and a fathom broad. In passing over it we
drew up a pail-full, and found that its colour was occasioned by an
infinite number of crabs, so small as to be scarcely distinguishable by
the naked eye.

We now began daily to experience increasing inconveniences from the
Northern climate. The sky, hitherto so serene, became gloomy and covered
with storm-clouds, which seldom threatened in vain; we were, besides,
enveloped in almost perpetual mists, bounding our prospect to a few
fathoms. In a short time, the temperature of the air had fallen from 24
deg. to 3 deg. So sudden a change is always disagreeable, and often
dangerous. We had to thank the skill and attention of our physician,
Dr. Siegwald, that it did not prove so to us. Such rough weather is not
common to the latitude we were in at that season; but it is peculiar to
the Japanese coast even in summer. Whales and storm-birds showed
the