Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/342

 that it ebbed twenty hours without intermission. Previous to this, the aurora borealis had been twice seen; and Commander Beechey noticed a parhelion so bright that it was difficult to distinguish it from the sun. On the 8th of October, the Blossom lost another man by disease; and on the 14th, she was obliged to shape a course for Behring’s Strait, the edges of the sound having already begun to freeze; besides which, other symptoms of approaching winter were too apparent to be disregarded. She subsequently visited the coast of California, and proceeded from thence across the Pacific, to the Sandwich Islands and Macao; searching, unsuccessfully, on her way to Honoruru, for all the islands that were marked near her route, rounding-to every night when near the position of any one, in order that it might not be passed unobserved; and making sail on a parallel of latitude during the day. On the 30th of April, 1827, we find her sailing from Macao, to explore the sea to the eastward of Loo-Choo.

After visiting this island, of which he has given a long and very interesting description. Captain Beechey re-discovered and surveyed the Ylas del Arzobispo; an extensive group, which had long been expunged from the charts. On the 2d of July, he again made the snowy mountains of Kamschatka; and, by the 18th, had completed a survey of the capacious bay of Awatska, and the harbours of Tareinski, Rakovya, and Petropaulski. On the 26th, he approached within a short distance of the Asiatic coast, in lat. 61&deg; 58' N.; and on the 21st of the following month, he was once more close to compact ice, pressing upon the American shore, in the parallel of 70&deg; 47'. Ten days afterwards, the Blossom sailed through an opening previously discovered by Mr. Elson, to the south-eastward of Cape Prince of Wales, and entered a spacious haven, capable of holding many ships of the line; connected with which, by a deep but narrow channel, was found an inner harbour ten miles long by two and a quarter wide.

These two ports, situated so near Behring’s Strait, may at some future time be of great importance to navigation, as they will be found particularly useful by vessels which may