It was calm great part of the 18th, and the weather was clear and pleasant.  We availed ourselves of this, by making observations for the longitude and variation.  The latter was found to be 21 deg. 27’ E. There can be no doubt that there is a continuation of the continent between Trinity Island and Foggy Cape, which the thick weather prevented us from seeing.  For some distance to the S.W., of that cape, this country is more broken or rugged than any part we had yet seen, both with respect to the hills themselves, and to the coast, which seemed full of creeks, or small inlets, none of which appeared to be of any great depth.  Perhaps, upon a closer examination, some of the projecting points between these inlets will be found to be islands.  Every part had a very barren aspect, and was covered with snow, from the summits of the highest hills, down to a very small distance from the sea coast.

Having occasion to send a boat on board the Discovery, one of the people in her shot a very beautiful bird of the hawk kind.  It is somewhat less than a duck, and of a black colour, except the fore-part of the head, which is white, and from above and behind each eye arises an elegant yellowish-white crest, revolved backward as a ram’s horn.  The bill and feet are red.  It is, perhaps, the alca monochroa of Steller, mentioned in the history of Kamtschatka.[3] I think the first of these birds was seen by us a little to the southward of Cape St Hermogenes.  From that time, we generally saw some of them every day, and sometimes in large flocks.  Besides these, we daily saw most of the other sea-birds, that are commonly found in other northern oceans, such as gulls, shags, puffins, sheerwaters, and sometimes ducks, geese, and swans.  And seldom a day passed without seeing seals, whales, and ether large fish.

[Footnote 3:  P. 158.  Eng.  Trans.—­The Tufted Aek.—­Pennant’s Arct.  Zool. ii.  N deg.. 432.]

In the afternoon, we got a light breeze of wind southerly, which enabled us to steer W., for the channel that appeared between the islands and the continent; and, at day-break next morning, we were at no great distance from it, and found several other islands, within those already seen by us, of various extent both in height and circuit.  But between these last islands, and those before seen, there seemed to be a clear channel, for which I steered, being afraid to keep the coast of the continent aboard, lest we should mistake some point of it for an island, and, by that means, be drawn into some inlet, and lose the advantage of the fair wind, which at this time blew.