Before day-light, on the 15th, we were surprised with a rumbling noise, resembling distant hollow thunder; and when the day broke, we found the decks and sides of the ships covered with a fine dust like emery, near an inch thick.  The air at the same time continued loaded and darkened with this substance, and toward the volcano mountain, situated to the north of the harbour, it was so thick and black, that we could not distinguish the body of the hill.  About twelve o’clock, and during the afternoon, the explosions became louder, and were followed by showers of cinders, which were in general about the size of peas; though many were picked up from the deck larger than a hazel-nut.  Along with the cinders fell several small stones, which had undergone no change from the action of fire.  In the evening we had dreadful thunder and lightning, which, with the darkness of the atmosphere, and the sulphureous smell of the air, produced altogether a most awful and terrifying effect.  We were at this time about eight leagues from the foot of the mountain.

On the 16th, at day-light, we again weighed anchor, and stood out of the bay; but the ebb tide setting across the passage upon the eastern shore, and the wind falling, we were driven very near the Three Needle Rocks, which lie on that side of the entrance, and obliged to hoist out the boats, in order to tow the ships clear of them.  At noon we were two leagues from the land, and had soundings with forty-three fathoms of line, over a bottom of small stones, of the same kind with those which fell on our decks after the eruption of the volcano; but whether they had been, left there by the last, or by some former eruptions, we were not able to determine.

The aspect of the country was now very different from what it had been on our first arrival.  The snow, excepting what remained on the tops of some very high mountains, had disappeared; and the sides of the hills, which in many parts were well wooded, were covered with a beautiful verdure.

As it was Captain Clerke’s intention to keep as much in sight of the coast of Kamtschatka as the weather would permit, in order to determine its position, we continued steering to the N.N.E, with light and variable winds till the 18th.  The volcano was still seen throwing up immense volumes of smoke, and we had no soundings with one hundred and fifty fathoms, at the distance of four leagues from the shore.

On the 18th, the wind freshening from the south, the weather became so thick and hazy, as to make it imprudent to attempt any longer to keep in sight of the land.  But that we might be ready to resume our survey, whenever the fogs should disperse, we ran on in the direction of the coast, as laid down in the Russian charts, and fired signal guns for the Discovery to steer the same course.  At eleven o’clock, just before we lost sight of the land, Cheepoonskoi Noss, so called by the Russians, (a description of which, as well as the coast between it and Awatska Bay, will be given, hereafter), bore N.N.E., distant seven or eight leagues.