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Sailing free, with all canvas spread, they one morning sighted a range of lofty mountains, their peaks touching the clouds, at which, falling on their knees, they returned thanks to Heaven. Though they ran on all day, they were yet unable to reach the land till the evening. At night they continued along the coast, which here trended from west to east.
Gradually, as I went onward, I noticed that the path trended steadily to the right, and so, after some minutes, I discovered that I was not going forward; but simply circling the huge abyss. I had, evidently, come to the end of the great passage.
After having for some time rested here I quitted the native path, which trended too much to the eastward, and, leaving also the direction of the limestone country which ran inland, we continued a south by east course over a gravelly tableland in places covered with beds of clay on which rested ponds of water. The country here was perfectly open, with clumps of trees to the eastward.
Dense clouds and a sleety rain settled over the sea, washing out every outline, as the St. Peter began her westward course. But what baffled both Bering and the officers was the fact that the coast trended, not north, but south. They were coasting that long peninsula of Alaska that projects an arm for a thousand miles southwestward into the Pacific. The roar of the rollers came from the reefs.
Our way lay in precisely the opposite direction to that taken by the raiders; that is to say, while they marched toward the west, we followed a narrow, winding footpath that, if it could be said to have any definite direction at all, trended toward the east.
On their left hand, some ten miles to the south, stood out against the sky the purple wall of Hartland cliffs, sinking lower and lower as they trended away to the southward along the lonely ironbound shores of Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue, into the blue horizon forty miles away.
Their course lay a little to the west of north, as the edge of the lake trended in that direction. Their usual plan, as already stated, was to keep out in the lake far enough to shun the numerous indentations of the shore, yet not so far as to endanger their little craft when the wind was high. At night they always landed, either upon some point or on an island.
From that day till Wednesday following, we had a good and prosperous gale of winde, so that we trended the said North shore East, Southeast, West Northwest: for such is the situation of it, except one Cape of low lands that bendeth more toward the Southeast, about twenty fiue leagues from the Streight.
The principal elevations in this extensive range, could not be less than two thousand feet; and they appeared to increase in height as the range trended to the north-west. To the eastward the ranges decreased somewhat in elevation, but were still very lofty. September 21.
After this I landed, and went upon the point, which is pretty high, from which I had a View of the Sea Coast, which trended away North-West by West, 8 or 10 Leagues, which was as far as I could see, the weather not being very clear.
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