538 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [cuap. 



on board the vessel, died. The survivors had scarcely time or 

 strength to bury the dead, and found it difficult to protect the 

 corpses from the hungry foxes that swarmed on the island and 

 had not yet learned to be afraid of man. On the Tjr"th Behring 

 was carried on land ; he was already mvich reduced and dejected, 

 and could not be induced to take exercise. He died on the y th 

 December. 



Vitus Behring was a Dane by birth, and when a young 

 man had already made voyages to the East and West Indies. 

 In 1707 he was received into the Russian navy as officer, 

 and as such took part in all the warlike enterj)rises of that 

 fleet against Sweden. He was in a way buried alive on the 

 island that now bears his name, for at last he did not 

 permit his men to remove the sand that rolled down upon 

 him from the walls of the sand pit in which he rested. For 

 he thought that the sand warmed his chilled body. Before 

 the corpse could be properly buried it had therefore to be 

 dug out of its bed, a circumstance which appears to have 

 produced a disagreeable impression on the survivors. The two 

 lieutenants, Waxel and Chitrov, had kept themselves in pretty 

 good health at sea, but now fell seriously ill, though they 

 recovered. Only the physician of the expedition, Georg 

 Wilhelm Steller, was all the tim.e in good health, and that a 

 single man of the whole crew escaped Avith his life was clearly 

 due to the skill of this gifted man, to his invincible energy 

 and his cheerful and sanguine disposition. These qualities 

 were also abundantly tested during the wintering. On the 

 night before the Jgih^^vember! ^^^^ vessel, on which no watch was 

 kept, because all the men were required on land to care for 

 the sick, was cast ashore by a violent E.S.E. storm. So great 

 a quantity of provisions Avas thus lost, that the remaining 

 stock was not sufficient by itself to yield enough food for all 

 the men during a Avhole winter. Men were therefore sent out 

 in all directions to inquire into the state of the land. They 

 returned with the information that the vessel had stranded 

 not, as was hoped at first, on the mainland but on an un- 

 inhabited, woodless island. It Avas thus clear to the ship- 

 wrecked men that in order to be saved they could rely only 

 on their judgment and strength. At the beginning they 

 found that if any provisions were to be reserved for the 

 voyage home, it was necessary that they should support them- 

 selves during Avinter to a considerable extent by hunting. 

 They did not like to use the flesh of the fox for food, and 

 at first kept to that of the sea-otter. This animal at present 

 is very scarce on Behring Island, but at that time the shore 

 was covered with Avhole herds of it. They had no fear of 

 man, came from curiosity straight to the fires, and did not 



