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