mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i3-025

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with one until morning, and on the 19th, in the morning,
weighed it, too, and sailed from the harbor. While we were
anchored in this dangerous place, we entertained ourselves by
watching an unusually large number of foxes, which came to
the sandspit toward evening to catch sea urchins, which they
like to eat. Among them we noticed a few silver blacks. It
would have been very easy to shoot them with rifles from the
sloop, but, in the first place, the skins at this time of year
molt and are not good for anything, and secondly, every animal
on the islands and in the sea is the property of the Company.

Our stay in Unalashka was notable for many weddings and
christenings. For almost twelve years it had not had a priest,
and from this it is possible to see how much ours had to do.

Leaving the harbor with a light SE breeze, we set our
course toward St. George Island, very exactly determined by
Admiral Sarychev, in order to confirm on it the movement of our
chronometers once more. The captain also planned, weather
permitting, to visit the island in order to trade sea lions,
sea otters, and murres from Aleuts who were settled there by
the Company, in order to supply the crew with at least some
fresh food, a commodity very important in these latitudes
where people,/more than elsewhere,/are subject to scurvy, the
development of which is promoted by salted murres, a sea bird,
resembling a duck in size and body, with the difference that
it has a sharp, not flat, beak. Its back and wings are black
and the abdomen, white. Its feathers and down are so thick