mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i4-038

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toward the interior a few miles from this place and extended
northward, leaving a low boggy expanse between them and the
shores of the bay, which formed a semicircle almost to our
camping place. To the SE, at the very edge of the horizon,
I saw, unnoticed yesterday, a large white building, which we
took for the "presidio" of the unknown inhabitants, but as
will be seen below, we were mistaken. So far as the fires
seen by us on the previous night were concerned, they could
not have been fires from this building because they were too
clear and|burned along a much greater area than the length of
the structure.

Taking the angles to obtain a fix on the observed places,
and the midday altitude, we left our camp and went to the
opposite cape. The depth here was from 13 to 15 sazhens, the
bottom silt and sand, and the declination of the compass on
the cape 13^o 30^' E. Taking the proper angles, we immediately
continued farther. At the beginning, we kept near the shore
in order to better determine its curvature, but the depth,
quickly diminishing to only several feet, forced us to abandon
this intention and go in a direct crossing to the next cape.
About midway between the two capes, the captain ordered us to
cast anchor in order to take some sightings. While this was
being done, a young sea otter surfaced right near the long-
boat. One of the sailors, holding an oar in his hands, struck
it on the head with the end. This blow stunned it and we
pulled it out. It came to after a few minutes and started
to bite anyone who approached it. For that reason, we had