Three Accounts of the Vasil'ev-Shismarev Expedition of 1819-1822

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without a big loss of time.

On August 14, at six o'clock in the morning, the mentioned island came into our sight. Its forerunners were an infinite multitude of sea birds such as puffins, murres, seagulls, and loons. About noon we neared the island and determined its latitude, 60° 13' 48" N and longitude, 187° 45' 48" E of Greenwich. It consists of high bare rocks in which nest millions of the mentioned birds. Near the northern end is located a separate little islet, and at the southern, an immense rock resembling a saddle and named by Captain Clerke, Pinnacle [Pinnacle Island] . This large island is about 60 miles long, but completely sterile and uninhabited. The existence of multitudes of sea lions, seals, and sea otters on its low shore prompted Mr. Baranov, former manager of the colonies of the [Russian-]American Company, to settle a few score Aleuts there for hunting these animals, but after three years he was compelled to abandon this undertaking and to transport the rest of the people back to Unalashka and Umnak from where they had been taken. I say "the rest" because the greater part of them perished from the cruel colds existing on the high, unprotected island, and from scurvy. Furthermore, in autumn, ice brought a terrible scourge for the people and animals living in this land; that is, polar bears, by whom several persons also perished every winter.

At Unalaska

From here we went to Unalashka, and on the 17th saw St.