The appearance of foul weather on the 6th and 7th, prevented our unmooring; but on the morning of the 8th, we sailed out toward the mouth of the bay, and hoisted in all the boats, when the wind, veering to the southward, stopped our farther progress, and obliged us to drop anchor in ten fathoms; the ostrog bearing due north, half a league distant.
The weather being foggy, and the wind from the same quarter during the forenoon of the 9th, we continued in our station. At four in the afternoon we again unmoored; but whilst we were with great difficulty weighing our last anchor, I was told that the drummer of the marines had left the boat which had just returned from the village, and that he was last seen with a Kamtschadale woman, to whom his messmates knew he had been much attached, and who had often been observed persuading him to stay behind. Though this man had been long useless to us, from a swelling in his knee, which rendered him lame, yet this made me the more unwilling he should be left behind, to become a miserable burden both to the Russians and himself. I therefore got the serjeant to send parties of soldiers, in different directions, in search of him, whilst some of our sailors went to a well- known haunt of his in the neighbourhood, where they found him with his woman. On the return of this party, with our deserter, we weighed, and followed the Resolution out of the bay.
Having at length taken our leave of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, I shall conclude this section with a particular description of Awatska Bay, and the coast adjoining; not only because (its three inlets included) it constitutes, perhaps, the most extensive and safest harbour that has yet been discovered, but because it is the only port in this part of the world capable of admitting ships of any considerable burden. The term Bay, indeed, is perhaps not applicable, properly speaking, to a place so well sheltered as Awatska; but, then, it must be observed, that, from the loose undistinguishing manner in which navigators have denominated certain situations of sea and land, with respect to each other, bays, roads, sounds, harbours, &c. we have no defined and determinate ideas affixed to these words, sufficient to warrant us in changing a popular name for one that may appear more proper.
The entrance into this bay is in 52° 51' north latitude, and 158° 48' east longitude, and lies in the bight of another exterior bay, formed by Cheepoonskoi Noss to the N., and Cape Gavareea to the S. The former of these head lands bears from the latter N.E. by N. 3/4 E., and is distant thirty-two leagues. The coast from Cape Gavareea to the entrance of Awatska Bay, takes a direction nearly N., and is eleven leagues in extent. It consists of a chain of high ragged cliffs, with detached rocks frequently lying off them. This coast, at a distance, presents in many parts an appearance of bays or inlets, but, on a nearer approach, the head-lands were found connected by low ground.
Cheepoonskoi Noss bears, from the entrance of the bay, E.N.E. 1/4 E, and is twenty-five leagues distant. On this side the shore is low and flat, with hills rising behind to a considerable height. In the latitude of Cape Gavareea there is an error of twenty-one miles in the Russian charts, its true latitude being 52° 21'.
This striking difference of the land on each side Awatska Bay, with their different bearings, are the best guides to steer for it in coming from the southward; and, in approaching it from the northward, Cheepoonskoi Noss will make itself very conspicuous; for it is a high projecting head-land, with a considerable extent of level ground lower than the Noss, uniting it to the continent. It presents the same appearance, whether viewed from the north or south, and will warn the mariner not to be deceived in imagining Awatska Bay to lie in the bight which the coast forms to the northward of this Noss, and which might be the case, from the striking resemblance there is between a conical hill within this bight or bay, and one to the south of Awatska Bay.
I have been thus particular in giving a minute description of this coast, from our own experience of the want of it. For had we been furnished with a tolerable account of the form of the coast on each side of Awatska Bay, we should, on our first arrival upon it, have got safely within the bay two days before we did, and thereby have avoided part of the stormy weather which came on when we were plying off the mouth of the harbour. Besides, from the prevalence of fogs in these seas, it must frequently happen, that an observation for ascertaining the latitude cannot be got; to which we may add, that the deceptive appearances land makes when covered with snow, and when viewed through an hazy atmosphere, both which circumstances prevail here during the greatest part of the year, render the knowledge of a variety of discriminating objects the more necessary.
Should, however, the weather be clear enough to admit a view of the mountains on the coast in its neighbourhood, these will serve to point out the situation of Awatska Bay, with a great deal of precision. For to the south of it are two high mountains; that which is nearest to the bay, is shaped like a sugar-loaf; the other, which is farther inland, does not appear so high, and is flat at the top. To the north of the bay, are three very conspicuous mountains; the westernmost is, to appearance, the highest; the next is the volcano mountain, which may be known from the smoke that issues from its top, and likewise from some high table-hills connected with it, and stretching to the northward; these two are somewhat peaked. The third, and the most northerly, might perhaps be more properly called a cluster of mountains, as it presents to the sight several flat tops.
When the navigator has got within the capes, and into the outward bay, a perpendicular head-land, with a lighthouse erected upon it, will point out the entrance of the bay of Awatska to the northward. To the eastward of this head-land lie many sunken rocks, stretching into the sea, to the distance of two or three miles; and which will shew themselves, if there be but a moderate sea or swell. Four miles to the south of the entrance lies a small round island, very distinguishable from being principally composed of high pointed rocks, with one of them strikingly remarkable, as being much larger, more peaked and perpendicular than the rest.
It is no way necessary to be equally particular in the description of the bay itself, as of its approaches and environs; since no words can give the mariner a perfect idea of it. The entrance is at first near three miles wide, and in the narrowest part one mile and a half, and four miles long, in a N.N.W. direction. Within the mouth is a noble bason of twenty-five miles circuit, with the capacious harbours of Tareinska to the W., of Rakoweena to the E., and the small one of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, where we lay, to the N.