1. List of Russian Naval Officers. St. Petersburg, 1882.—V. Berch: The First Russian Admirals.—Scheltema: Rusland en de Nederlanden, III., p. 287.—L. Daae: NormÆnd og Danske i Rusland.

As Berch hints that Bering had many enemies in the Department of the Marine, I have made inquiries on this point. Admiral Th. Wessalgo informs me that Berch's account is entirely without foundation. Bering demanded and got his discharge in 1724, because he was dissatisfied with the regulations governing promotions.

2. Sammlung Russ. Geschichte, III., p. 50.—P. Avril's Accounts of America, collected in Smolensk, 1686.—Vaugondie: Memoires, p. 4. Les gÉographes des 16' et 17' siÈcles ont toujours pensÉ que la mer separait l'Asie de l'AmÉrique.

See also a very interesting essay on the first Russian accounts of America: The Great Land, Bolshaia Zemlia, in the Memoirs of the Department of Hydrography (Zapiski), Vol. IX., p. 78.

The name Anian Strait has arisen through a misunderstanding of Marco Polo's book (lib. III., cap. 5). His Ania is no doubt the present Anam, but the Dutch cartographers thought that this land was in Northeast Asia, and called the strait that was said to separate the continents the Strait of Anian. The name appears for the first time on Gerh. Mercator's famous maritime chart of 1569.

Dr. Soph. Ruge: Fretum Aniam, Dresden, 1873, p. 13.

3. G. F. MÜller, in Schreiben eines Russ. Officiers von der Flotte p. 14, seeks to take to himself all the honor for our knowledge of Deshneff's journey, but this is not tenable. See BeitrÄge zur Kenntniss des russischen Reiches, XVI., 44. Bering did not collect his information concerning Deshneff in Kamchatka, but in Yakutsk, and referred MÜller to this matter.

A. Strindberg: P. J. v. Strahlenberg, in the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, 1879, No. 6.

4. V. Berch: The First Voyage of the Russians, pp. 2-5.

5. Bering's report to the Admiralty, in The First Voyage of the Russians, p. 14, together with his original account in Description gÉographique, historique de l'empire de la Chine. Par le PÈre J. B. Du Halde. La Hague, 1736, IV., 562.

6. G. W. Steller: Beschreibung v. dem Lande Kamtschatka. Frankfurt, 1774.

Krasheninikoff: The History of Kamtschatka. Glocester, 1764.

7. A species of bears-foot, Sphondylium foliolis pinnatifides. Cleff.

8. Bering's fear of the Chukchees may seem in our day to put him in a bad light; but they who are familiar with the history of this people know that at the time of Bering they were very warlike. Both Schestakoff and Pavlutski fell in combat with them. Neue nordische BeitrÄge, I., 245.

J. Bulitsheff: Reise in Ostsibirien. Leipzig, 1858, p. 33.

9. The ship's journal, kept by Lieut. P. Chaplin, is the basis of this presentation. The first Voyage of the Russians, pp. 31-65. Von Baer has used it to some extent, but no other West European author.

In Bering Strait there are two Diomede islands. The boundary line between Russia and North America passes between them. The Russian island is called Ratmanoff or Imaklit, the American Krusenstern or Ingalisek. Sea W. H. Dall: Alaska, Boston, 1870, p. 249.

10. That Bering himself was the author, would seem to be shown by the fact that Weber who knew and associated with Bering, uses verbatim the same expressions concerning the first expedition. See Weber: Das verÄnderte Russland, III., 157.

11. Cook and King: Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. III., 244.—The only place where I have found any testimony to show that America was seen from the Gabriel is a chart by J. N. De l'Isle: "Carte GÉnerale des DÉcouvertes de l'Admiral de Fonte," Paris, 1752, on which chart, opposite the Bering peninsula, a coast line is represented with the words: "Terres vues par M. Spangberg en 1728, frequentÉes À prÉsent par les Russes, qui en apportent de trÈs belles fourrures."

12. The Academy's map, 1737.—MÜller's map, 1758.

13. See A. Th. v. Middendorff: Reise in den Aeussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens., IV., 56.

Concerning Bering's determinations of longitude and latitude, O. Peschel says: "Auf der ganzen Erde gibt es vielleicht keine wichtigere Ortsbestimmung, als die von Petropaulovski, insofern von ihr die mathematischen LÄngen in der Beringsstrasse abhÄngen, welche die Erdveste in zwei grosse Inseln trennt. Mit lebhafter Freude gewahrt man, dass schon der Entdecker Bering auf seiner ersten Fahrt trotz der Unvollkommenheit seiner Instrumente die LÄngen von Okhotsk, die SÜdspitze Kamchatkas und die Ostspitze Asiens, bis auf Bruchtheile eines Grades richtig bestimmte."—Geschichte der Erdkunde, pp. 655-56.

A list of Bering's determinations is found in Harris's Collection of Voyages, II., 1021, London, 1748.

About the middle of the eighteenth century there was a violent attack on Bering's determinations. Samuel Engel, Vaugondie, and Bushing tried to show that according to these Asia had been put too far east. S. Engel: Remarques sur la partie de la relation du voyage du Capt. Cook qui concerne le dÉtroit entre l'Asie et l'AmÉrique. Berne, 1781.—M. D. Vaugondie: MÉmoire sur les pays de l'Asie, etc., Paris, 1774.—Bushing's Magazine, VIII., IX.

14. Cook and King: Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, III., 473: "In justice to the memory of Bering, I must say that he has delineated the coast very well, and fixed the latitude and longitude of the points better than could be expected from the methods he had to go by. This judgment is not formed from Mr. MÜller's account of the voyage or the chart prefixed to his book, but from Dr. Campbell's account of it in his edition of Harris's Collection and a map thereto annexed, which is both more circumstantial and accurate than that of Mr. MÜller." The chart which Cook refers to is a copy of Bering's own chart as given by D'Anville.

Concerning East Cape, Cook says: "I must conclude, as Bering did before me, that this is the most eastern point of Asia," p. 470.

16. See Steller's various works, especially the introduction to the one on Kamchatka, where it is stated that Bering returned "ohne doch das geringste entdeckt zu haben." This introduction was written by J. B. S. (Scherer).

16. In Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1879, p. 163, Dr. Lindemann says that Bering turned back "without having seen, strange to say, either the Diomedes or the American coast." The author's authority is evidently W. H. Dall, an extremely unfortunate historian. The latter says: "Bering, naturally timid, hesitating, and indolent, determined to go no farther for fear of being frozen in, and returned through the Strait—strange to say—without seeing the Diomedes or the American coast." See Dall: Alaska and its Resources. Boston, 1870, p. 297.

17. Geschichte der Entdeckungen im Norden, p. 463.

18. C. C. Rafn: GrÖnlands historiske MindesmÆrker. Copenhagen, 1838, III.

19. Hazii: Karten von dem Russ. Reiche, NÜrnberg, 1788.—T. C. Lotter: Carte gÉogr. de Siberie, Augsburg.

20. Harris's Collection of Voyages, II., 1021, Note 34.

21. V. Berch: The First Voyage of the Russians.

22. BeitrÄge zur Kenntniss des Russ. Reiches, XVI.

23. The name appears earlier on the chart which accompanies Gmelin's Reise durch Sibirien, IV., 1752, and in Steller's Reise von Kamtschatka nach Amerika. But both of these authors must here be considered an echo of MÜller.

24. See MÜller's own review of the Russians' early knowledge of the peninsula in Vol. III. of Sammlung Russ. Geschichte. Even as late as 1762 the Cossacks could travel among the Chukchees only in disguise.—Pallas: N. Nord. BeitrÄge, I., 245.—During Billings's expedition hostilities were still smoldering.—East Cape is 600 miles from Anadyrskoi Ostrog.

26. J. D. Cochrane has, in Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey, London, 1825, App. p. 299, attempted to establish Pavlutski's route, unsuccessfully, however, we think. On the whole, accounts and opinions concerning Pavlutski are so uncertain, that it is impossible by means of the literature on this point, to give a final opinion. See Fr. LÜtke: Voyage autour du monde, II., 238. "Sauer dit que Pavlovtsky vint jusqu'au dÉtroit de Bering; ce qui, au reste, n'est pas en lui mÊme vraisenable."

26. Pallas: N. Nord. BeitrÄge. I. Chart.—Martin Sauer: An Account of Com. Billings's Geog. and Astr. Expedition. 1785-94. Chart.

27. M. Sauer: An Account, etc., p. 252, Note.—Fr. LÜtke: Voyage autour du monde, II., 238. Note and chart: Carte de la Baie de Sct. Croix. LevÉe par les emb. de la Corvette le Seniavine, 1828, where the original Serdze Kamen is found in its proper place with the original Chukchee name, Linglingay.

28. Steller: Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, p. 15. Steller sways back and forth between MÜller's views and the account that he himself obtained of the real state of affairs. He met MÜller in West Siberia in 1739, when the latter was filled with his supposed epoch-making discoveries in Yakutsk archives. In Reise nach Amerika, p. 6, Steller says: "So verblieb es nichts desto weniger auf Seiten der damals gebrauchten Officiere bey einer kurzen Untersuchung des Landes Kamtschatka, von Lopatka bis zu dem sogenannten Serze Kamen, welche bey weitem das Tschuktschiske Vorgebirge noch nicht ist." He has so little knowledge of Bering's work that he can immediately go on to say: "Gwosdew ist viel weiter und bis 66 Grad Norderbreite gekommen."

29. How varying the views on this subject have been even in the narrowest academical circles may be seen from the following: In a German edition of Atlas Russicus, 1745, Serdze Kamen appears as a mountain in the center of the Chukchee peninsula. (By Calque, placed at my disposal by A. Thornam, of St. Petersburg. In the French edition the name is not found at all.) On the maps which accompany J. E. Fischer's Sibirische Geschichte, 1768, and Ginelin's work, Serze Kamen and Kammenoie Serdze are found, but in different places of Bering Strait, both different from MÜller's.

30. Cook and King: Voyage, etc., I., 469: "Thus far Bering proceeded in 1728, that is, to this head, which MÜller says is called Serdze Kamen on account of a rock upon it shaped like a heart. But I conceive that Mr. MÜller's knowledge of these parts is very imperfect. There are many elevated rocks upon this cape, and possibly some one or other of them may have the shape of a heart.

"At four in the morning the cape, which, on the authority of MÜller, we have called Serdze Kamen, bore S. S. West." III., 261.

31. Gvosdjeff's Reise. Note 121.

32. BeitrÄge zur Kenntniss, etc., XVI., 44. Note.

33. Philip Johann Tabbert, ennobled in 1707 and called Von Strahlenberg, was born at Stralsund in 1676, and taken captive after the battle of Pultowa as captain in the army of Charles XII. He was banished to Tobolsk, traveled some years with Dr. Messerschmidt in Siberia, and together with other Swedish officers he made several maps of Siberia, which, without his knowledge or consent, were published in Holland by Bentinck, 1726, in L'Histoire des Tartares, etc., and reprinted in various works such as La Russie asiatique, tirÉe de la Carte donnÉe par ordre du feu Czar. In 1730, Strahlenberg's own work appeared in Leipsic; it is marked by its minute knowledge of details. His representation of the Chukchees peninsula deserves attention as evidence of the knowledge the Cossacks had of this region, whereas there is nothing original in his representation of the coast-lines of Eastern Asia. Baer says that Strahlenberg's book and map was made by a Leipsic student, and that whatever it contains that is of value is taken from Messerschmidt. BeitrÄge, XVI., 126. Note 18.

34. This map is reproduced in NordenskjÖld's Voyage of the Vega.

35. Steller: Reiss von Kamtschatka, etc., p. 6, where a very erroneous and unreasonable account of the result of Bering's first expedition is given.

36. Kiriloff's map is found in Russici imperii Tab. Generalis et Specialis, Vol. XLIII.

37. Strangely enough, no original copy seems to have remained in the archives of the Admiralty. Berch insists that no such copy exists. I investigated the matter in 1883, and later Mr. A. Thornam has examined the archives for this purpose, but without result.

38. Du Halde writes: Ce Capitaine revint Á Sct. Petersburg le premier jour de Mars de l'annÉe 1730, et apporta une relation succinte de son voyage, avec la Carte qu'il en avoit dressÉe. Cette Carte fÛt envoyÉe au SÉrÉnissime Roi de Pologne, comme une prÉsent digne de son attention et de sa curiositÉ, et Sa MajestetÉ a bien voulu qu'elle me fÛt communiquÉe en me permettant d'en faire tel usage qu'il me plairot. J'ai cru que le Public me scauroit quelque grÉ de l'avoir ajoutÉe À toutes celles que je lui avois promises.

In the Swedish geographical journal, "Ymer," 1884, there is an interesting account by E. W. Dahlgren of the copies of Bering's chart in Sweden.

39. Gmelin: Reise durch Sibirien. Introduction.

40. Bering's proposition was formulated as follows: (1) As the waves, according to my observation, are smaller east of Kamchatka [than in the open ocean], and, moreover, as I have on Karaginski Island found large fir-trees washed ashore, which do not grow in Kamchatka, it is my opinion that America or some intervening land can not be very far from Kamchatka (150-200 geographical miles). In case this is so, commercial relations with that country that would be to the advantage of the Russian empire could be established. This matter can be investigated, if a vessel is built of from 45 to 50 tons burden. (2) This vessel ought to be built at Kamchatka, as at this place more available timber is found than at other places [on the east coast]; moreover, provisions for the crew, fish and other animals are easily obtained. Besides, greater assistance can be obtained from the Kamchadales than from the inhabitants of Okhotsk. (3) It would not be without advantage to find out the sea-route from Okhotsk or Kamchatka to the mouth of the Amoor and farther on to the Japan Islands, as we there have hopes of finding inhabited regions. It would be well to establish commercial relations with them, especially with the Japanese, which promises the Russian empire no small advantage in the future. For this purpose a ship of the same size or a little smaller than the first might be built. (4) The expenses of this expedition in addition to the salaries and the materials, which could not be secured there, but would have to be taken along from here or Siberia, would, including the transport, amount to ten or twelve thousand rubles. (5) If it is considered advisable to chart the northern coast of Siberia, especially from the mouth of the Obi to the Yenisei and hence to the Lena, this can be done by sailing down these rivers or by expeditions by land, as these regions are under Russian rule.

Vitus Bering.

April 30, 1730.

These propositions were first published by Berch in "The First Russian Admirals," and later reprinted by Sokoloff in Zapiski Hydrograficheskago Departamenta (Journal of Hydr. Dept.), St. Petersburg, IX., Appendix.

41. Part II. is based upon the works of Von Baer, Middendorff, and Sokoloff.

42. General List of Russian Naval Officers, St. Petersburg, 1882.

43. Zapiski, IX., 250.—BeitrÄge zur Kenntniss, etc., Introduction.—Sokoloff: "Chirikoff's Voyage to America," St. Petersburg, 1849.—Bering's wife was suspected of having acquired goods illegally, but there is no proof of this. When she, in the year 1738, returned from Siberia, the Senate, influenced by the numerous denunciations of her conduct, issued an ukase that her goods should be examined. At the inspection on the borders of Siberia it was found that she had a suspiciously large quantity of furs and other things. She rather overawed the authorities, however, and returned to St. Petersburg unmolested. Sokoloff gives no information as to whether the furs were illegally obtained or not. She was very much younger than Bering; in 1744, on making application for a widow's pension, she gave her age as 39 years.

44. The author is indebted to Admiral Th. Wessalgo for the following archival accounts.

The Admiralty to Captain Bering, Feb. 26, 1736.

The Admiralty to Captain Bering, Jan. 31, 1737.

The Admiralty to Captain, Bering, Jan. 23, 1738.

45. To an inquiry directed to the Russian Admiralty asking the reason for Bering's long stay in Yakutsk, Admiral Th. Wessalgo has given me the following information:

"In Yakutsk, which was the base of operations for the whole expedition, Bering was to secure wood, iron, and other materials for the building of the necessary ships, and, what is most important, he was to secure provisions, of which a yearly supply of 16,000 poods was necessary. Although the furnishing of provisions had been assigned to the Siberian authorities, they did nothing, in spite of urgent and repeated demands; hence Bering had to undertake this work himself. Moreover, the immense amount of materials and provisions collected here was to be sent to Okhotsk, a task which presented insurmountable obstacles: the country was a wild and desolate region, the local authorities refused their co-operation in promoting the enterprise, there was constant contention and disagreement among the various officers in charge, who were more concerned in their own personal interests than in the common weal, and Bering himself—was a weak character."

46. Stuckenberg: Hydrographie des russischen Reiches, II.—Krasheninikoff: Kamtschatka.—Pallas: N. Nord, BeitrÄge, IV.—Sarycheff: Reise, etc.—Zapiski, etc.: IX., 331.—Schuyler: Peter the Great, II., 544.

47. On account of the Chukchee war, D. Laptjef was to go from Kolyma to Anadyr and from there send word to Bering for a vessel or to go himself to Kamchatka for it,—in either case he was to sail around the northeast point of Asia, and reach the mouth of the Kolyma. When he, in 1741, arrived at Anadyr, Bering had departed for America, and hence he could do no more than build some boats, by means of which he, in 1742, charted the lower course of the Anadyr, and returned in 1743 to Yakutsk. Zapiski, etc.: IX., pp. 314-327.—BeitrÄge, XVI., pp. 121-122.

48. Baer says: Es hÄtte dieser Expedition auch die volle Anerkennung nicht fehlen kÖnnen, die man ihnen jetzt erst zollen muss, nachdem die verwandte NordkÜste von Amerika nach vielfachen Versuchen noch immer nicht ganz bekannt worden ist. Auch hÄtten wir den Britten zeigen kÖnnen, wie eine solche KÜste aufgenommen werden muss, nÄmlich in kleinen Fahrzengen, zwar mit weniger Comfort, aber mit mehr Sicherheit des Erfolges.—BeitrÄge, XVI., 123.

Middendorff: Reise, etc., IV., Part I., 49, says: Mit gerechtem Stolze dÜrfen wir aber in Erinnerung rufen, dass zu seiner Zeit Russland im Osten des Nordens durch seine "Nordische Expedition" nicht minder Grosses vollbracht, als die Britten im Westen.

Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1873, p. 11: Der leitende Gedanke zur Aussendung jener Reihe grossartiger Expeditionen war der Wunsch * * * eine nordÖstliche Durchfahrt zu entdecken.

49. A. Stuxberg: NordÖstpassagens Historie. Stockholm, 1880.—Th. M. Fries: NordÖstpassagen. NÆr og FjÆrn 1880, No, 417.

A. E. NordenskjÖld: The Voyage of the Vega.—In a long and favorable review of NordenskjÖld's book in BeitrÄge zur Kenntniss des russ. Reiches, St. Petersburg, 1883, VI., 325, the Academist Fr. Schmidt expresses himself in the following manner concerning NordenskjÖld's presentation of the history of the Northeast passage: Die dritte Gruppe bilden endlich die russischen Reisen im Eismeer und an den KÜsten desselben, die ebenfalls ausfÜhrlich behandelt werden. Hier fÄllt es uns nun auf, dass im Bestreben, jedem das Seine zukommen zu lassen, die weniger bekannten Mitarbeiter an der Erweiterung unsrer Kenntniss, denen wir gewiss ihre Verdienste nicht absprechen wollen, fast mÖchte ich sagen auf Kosten unsrer berÜhmten gelehrten Forscher hervorgezogen scheinen, von denen namentlich Wrangell und auch Baer an mehreren Stellen Angriffe zu erdulden haben, die wir nicht fÜr gerechtfertigt halten kÖnnen. Auch LÜtke * * * kommt sehr kurz weg.

This criticism might be applied to other parts of NordenskjÖld's historical writings.

50. St. Petersburg Academy's Memoirs (Bull. phys. math. Tom. III., No. 10.)

51. BeitrÄge, etc., IX., 495. Baer says: Es ist hÖchst erfreulich, die mit schweren Opfern erkÄmpften Verdienste unserer Marine-Officiere vom vorigen Jahrhundert von dem neuesten Reisenden in vollem Maase anerkannt zu sehen.—Nach Herrn v. Middendorf ist nun gerade Tscheljuskin der beharrlichste und genaueste unter den Theilnehmern jener Expedition gewesen. Wir wollen ihn also gern vollstÄndig in integrum restituiren.

52. Zapiski, etc., IX., 308. Chelyuskin's original account is found in the same volume, pp. 61-65. The German translation appears in Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1873, p. 11.

53. Cook and King: Voyage, etc., III., 391: "For the group of islands, consisting of the Three Sisters, Kunashir and Zellany (which in D'Anville's Atlas are placed in the track we had just crossed) being, by this means, demonstratively removed from that situation, an additional proof is obtained of their lying to the westward, where Spangberg actually places them, between the long. 142° and 147°. But as this space is occupied, in the French charts, by that part of the supposed Land of Jeso and Staten Island, Mr. MÜller's opinion becomes extremely probable that they are all the same lands; and, as no reasons appear for doubting Spangberg's accuracy, we have ventured in our general map to reinstate the Three Sisters, Zellany and Kunashir, in their proper situation, and have entirely omitted the rest."—Cf. O. Peschel's account, p. 467, 2d Ed.

54. W. Coxe: An Account of the Russian Discoveries. London, 1781.

55. The pre-Bering explorations of Northwest America did not extend beyond the northern boundary of California, and had not succeeded in ascertaining a correct outline of the country. In the oldest maps of the new world, that of Ortelius (1570), Mercator (1585), Ramusio (1606), and W. Blaew (1635), California is represented as a peninsula; but on the maps of later cartographers as W. Samson (1659), Wischer (1660), J. Blaew, Jansen (1662), Fr. de Witt (1666), and Nic. Samson (1667), the country is represented as an island, and this view was held until G. de L'Isle (1720) adopted in his atlas the old cartography of the peninsula.

Gvosdjeff's expedition to Bering's Strait in 1732 is but slightly and very imperfectly known in West Europe. It was undertaken by Ivan Fedoroff, Moschkoff, who had accompanied Bering on his first expedition, and the surveyor Gvosdjeff. Fedoroff is thus the real discoverer of America from the east, and the world has given Gvosdjeff the honor simply for the reason that the reports of Fedoroff and his associate were lost and he himself died the year after. There is an interesting account of this enterprise in Zapiski, etc., IX., 78.

56. G. W. Steller: Reise von Kamtschatka nach Amerika. St. Petersburg, 1793.

57. R. Greenhow: History of Oregon, California and the Northwest Coast of North America, 3d ed., New York, 1845, p. 216.—W. H. Dall: Alaska and its Resources. Boston, 1870, p. 257.—Milet-Mureau: Voyage de la PÉrouse autour du Monde, II., 142-144 and Note.—Vancouver: Voyage, etc.—Oltmann's: Untersuchungen Über die Geographie des neuen Continentes. Paris, 1810, II.

58. A. J. v. Krusenstern: Hydrographie, etc., p. 226,—O. Peschel: Geschichte der Erdkunde, 2d ed., p. 463 and Note.

59. According to Wrangell, Dall and others, both Indians and Eskimos inhabit this region. Clans of the great TinnÉ tribe, Ugalenses, stay during the summer on the Atna River, and during the winter on Kayak Island; but on the coast of the continent from Ice Bay to the Atna River there are also found Innuits, the Ugalakmuts.—See Vahl: Alaska, p. 39. The people that Bering found on the island must, according to Sauer, have been Chugachees, Eskimos that live about Prince William's Sound.

See also H. H. Bancroft, Native Races, San Francisco, 1882, Vol. I.—Tr.

60. Gavrila Sarycheff: AchtjÄhrige Reise im nordÖstlichen Sibirien, auf dem Eismeer und dem nordÖstlichen Ocean. Leipzig, 1806, II., 57.—Sauer: An Account, etc., p. 198. "This perfectly answers to Steller's account of the Cape St. Elias of Bering, and is undoubtedly the very spot where Steller landed, and where the things above mentioned were left in the cellar. Thus it is very plain that Cape St. Elias is not the southern point of Montague Island, but Kay's Island."—G. Shelikoff: Erste und Zweite Reise. St. Petersburg, 1793.

61. Zapiski, IX., 303.—The Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1882. Maps.

62. Dall: Alaska and its Resources, p. 300.—Vahl in his work on Alaska repeats Dall's opinion in a somewhat milder form.

63. Krusenstern: Recueil de MÉmoires Hydrogr., II., 72.—Cook and King: Voyage, III., 384.—The Geodetic Coast Survey, 1882.

64. Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, under date of June 9, 1889, writes the translator: "The locality indicated in LÜtke's map is correct. It is consequently on the eastern side of the island. Steller's statement that it was on the northern side is easily explained as follows: The valley where he landed opens toward the northeast, and the corresponding valley on the other side of the island runs southwest; this side consequently became the southern side. At the time of the shipwreck the magnetic deviation was much more easterly than it is now, so that by compass the direction of the eastern coast was much more E.-W. than at present. Throughout his description of Bering Island, Steller says north and south, where we would say east and west.

"My visit to this locality in 1882, I have described in detail in Deutsche Geographische BlÄtter (1885), where you will also find a sketch map of it, as well as a plan of the house in which the survivors wintered.

"Since I wrote my account, I have been able to consult Steller's own description of the wintering, and I find that the house which I have described and given the plan of, was the one they built in the spring, after the freshet which drove them out of the dug-outs (Gruben) on the bank of the creek, traces of which are still visible. I also found a number of relics at a place which I took to be the point where they rebuilt the vessel. In a letter Mr. Lauridsen suggested to me the probability that I had found not this place, but the locality where the store-house was built, in which the men left what they could not carry on the new vessel, and that the latter must have been built near the southern end of the bay. After reading Steller's own account, however, I feel absolutely certain that the ship was built at the northern end, near the huts and dug-outs, at the place where I found the relics. It is quite probable, however, that the store-house was built in very close proximity, if not on the very spot."

65. Leonhard Stejneger: Fra det yderste Osten. Naturen, Vol. 8. Kristiania, 1884, pp. 65-69.—Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 1884. Investigations Relating to the Date of the Extermination of Steller's Sea-Cow, by Leonhard Stejneger.—Henry W. Elliott: A Monograph of the Seal Islands of Alaska, Washington, 1882.—Neue N. BeitrÄge, II., 279.—G. W. Steller: Ausf. Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren. Halle, 1753.—E. Reclus: Geographie, etc., VI., 794.

66. Concerning Chirikoff, full information is given in Sokoloff: Chirikoff's Voyage to America, St. Petersburg, 1849 (Russian). He died in 1748 at Moscow.

See also H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States of North America, Vol. XXXIII., History of Alaska. San Francisco, 1886.—Tr.[Pg 216]
[Pg 217]

[96] The author gives extracts from other reports of the same tenor, which the translator has seen fit to omit, referring the reader for further information on this subject to Bering's own report, p. 195 of this volume.