mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i5-027

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Matthewy Island, which we reached the next day, but because
of dense fog, we saw only the outlines of its high mountains
in the atmosphere. Its low part was completely hidden from
our sight. Not wasting time in waiting for the fog to lift,
we directed out course to the place where Anderson Island was
indicated on the map, and on the third reached this spot, but
likewise, with slightly overcast weather, we saw nothing resem-
bling an island. Even so, we hesitated to erase it from the map,
and continued our journey, taking a direction to the NNE.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, the horizon toward the
SE cleared completely, and we saw high ground in this direction.
Being situated ata that time at latitude 62[degree symbol] 56' and logitude
193[degree symbol] 32', we were at a distance of more than 180 miles from
the American shore, too great to be able to see the tallest
mountain on the globe. For this reason, we considered the land
as a new discovery, or, assuming errors in the calculations of
Captain Cook, as Anderson Island.¹⁵ Wishing to check further
the captain ordered us to approach this shore. Moving forward,
we constantly cast the lead. This precaution proved very
useful because the depth niticeably started to decrease.
After we made a few miles, the water began noticeably to change
its color, and from dark green became yellow and muddy, a
clear sign of shoal water in an open sea; and indeed, the
depth suddenly decreased from eight to four sazhens. Seeing
the impossibility of penetrating to the sighted shore without
danger and loss of time, we, being at a distance of 67 1/2