CHAPTER VIII
RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY
Steamer Corwin,
Near the mouth of Metchigme Bay,
On the west side of Bering Strait,
After leaving St. Michael, on the evening of the twenty-first, we crossed Bering Sea to Plover Bay to fill our coal-bunkers from a pile belonging to His Majesty, the Czar of Russia.
On the twenty-third we were sailing along the north side of St. Lawrence Island against a heavy wind. There was a rough sea and a clear sky, save on the island. I had a tolerably clear view of the most prominent portion of the island near the middle. It is here composed of lava, reddish in color and dotted with craters and cones, most of which seem recent, though a slight amount of glaciation of a local kind is visible. About three in the afternoon we came to anchor off the northwest end of the island opposite the village. A few natives came aboard at eight o'clock.
The next day we got under way at four in the morning, going east along the south side of St. Lawrence Island. The norther again was
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