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Raven totem.

28th

Early in the morning in a thick fog we made the western Diomede Is. and stopped to land 3 men with an outfit for ascertaining the current in the strait. I fitted out & left my men to collect some of the sea birds which swarm in myriads about the island keeping up a continual low humming noise and looking like a swarm of bees. A lot of natives came on board They were a far pleasanter appearing crew from those seen yesterday and I could make myself understood as they talk the Eskimo very closely allied to that used at St. M.

Having landed the party we stood on past East Cape a bold rocky headland and for Cape Serdze Camen [[Serdtse-Kamen]]. A lot of the same black wing-tipped gull I shot at Plover Bay kept in the wake all the PM.

29th

Snow squalls all day. We arrived in the morning just off Cape Serdze Kamen [[crossed out]] inside which to the NW. a mile or so the “Vega” wintered in ’78 & ’79 [[/crossed out]] The shore is bordered with a couple of miles of loose mush ice making it difficult to land though the native village is in plain sight.

A Pomarine jaeger in black plumage. A lot of King eiders, Murres, Pigeon 

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