If, therefore, a skin is worth thirty roubles in Kamtchatka, to be transported first to Okotzk, thence by land to Kiachta, a distance of 1364 miles; thence to Pekin, 760 miles more; and after that to be conveyed to Japan, what a prodigiously advantageous trade might be carried on direct to Japan, which is about a fortnight or three weeks' sail from Kamtschatka! It was now resolved, in consequence of the latitude given by the instructions of the Board of Admiralty, to run along the Kuriles, and to survey the eastern coasts of the Japanese islands, previous to returning homewards; and Captain Gore gave orders for Macao to be the place of rendezvous in case of separation.
They coasted along the peninsula of Kamtschatka with variable weather, and on the 12th, at six in the afternoon, they saw, from the mast head, Cape Lopatka, the southernmost extremity of the peninsula.

This point of land, which is a low flat cape, formed a marked object in the geography of the eastern coast of Asia, and by an accurate observation and several good angles, they determined its precise situation to be in latitude 51 deg.

0', and longitude 156 deg.

45'.

At the same time they saw too the first of the Kurile islands, called Shoomsha, and on the next day they saw the second, Paramousir; the latter is the largest of the Kuriles subject to Russia; but the gale increasing from the west, they were never able to approach it nearer than to observe its general aspect, which was very high land, almost entirely covered with snow; and to ascertain its situation; which was found to be 10' west longitude from Lopatka, and its latitude 50 deg.