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

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Paul Island, which belongs, the same as St. George Island, to the Pribilof Islands and separated from it by a channel 60 miles wide.

On the 22nd, we saw Makushin Volcano with its constantly smoking summit. Having a rather strong NW breeze, by 10 o'clock we approached the harbor where we caught up with three single-hatch Aleut baidars [baidarkas?] returning with a full load of codfish caught by them. They announced that the "Discovery" had been in Unalashka for three days. Toward noon, accompanied by the mentioned baidars, we entered the harbor and dropped anchor near the "Discovery." Entering the harbor, the sloop had seven and a half knots of speed and the baidars outdistanced it. From this it is evident how fast and light these skin boats are.

The day after our arrival we started the most necessary repairs to the rigging. Preparing to sail on a most stormy, and very unjustly called Pacific Ocean, especially around the equinox, we tightened the lower mast shrouds, and as an aid put on the auxiliary shrouds.

The manager, [ Ivan Vasilevich] Kriukov, told us that on the northeast side almost at the entrance to the harbor, at the foot of a high mountain, is a hot spring. Our naturalist, desiring to investigate its character, was dispatched there in a cutter on the 25th in the company of officers not otherwise busy with tasks, and with the son of Kriukov. We were told that it shoots up out of the ground an arshin or more, that it