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 the vessel, bringing furs to barter with the sailors. Steering northwest, Cook saw San Jacinto Mountain, so named by Cuadra, which he rechristened Mt. Edgecumbe. In latitude 60° he saw a lofty peak which he named Mt. St. Elias. Cook held his course westward and northward, exploring the Alaska coast and inlets. Finally, sailing through Bering's Strait, on the 9th day of August, 1778, he reached the "western extremity of all America "in latitude 65° 46′. Directly opposite he found the easternmost point of Asia. The first he named Cape Prince of Wales, the second East Cape.

Finding the season too far advanced for the projected search for a passage to the Atlantic, Cook turned back to winter in the Sandwich Islands, where he lost his life in February, 1779.

Their historical significance. Cook was not the discoverer of the Northwest coast. But, while he came after the Spanish navigators in time and while he left much for others to do, he yet made the first extended scientific surveys in that region and in effect gave to the world its first definite information concerning the contour of western North America from the latitude of California to Cape Prince of Wales.