PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 59 
The season was unfavorable, as the vegetation was already so luxuri- 
ant asto make it difficult to move outside of the roads, and the mos- 
quitos were plentiful enough to make it extremely painful to lay in wait 
for birds or to creep around searching for spiders, beetles, and snails. 
However, if the stay was not very profitable to the collection, it was not 
entirely without results, for I gained a great deal of valuable experience 
which will be of use to me during my proposed visit to Kamtschatka 
next year. What rendered my sojourn there especially attractive and 
instructive was the daily intercourse with the experienced and merito- 
rious explorer of Eastern Asia, Dr. Benedict Dybowski, who, of course, 
better than any one else, could give me all desirable information. On 
the 15th of July I found myself again on Bering Island. 
The following weeks were occupied chiefly by observations on the 
rookery, about 15 miles distant from the village,and I could not begin 
to think about the expedition towards the south beforethe middle of 
August. 
Every one suggested that the most practicable way would be to go 
around the island in a boat, as traveling overland with dogs would be 
difficult and expensive, and, on the other hand, several places of inter- 
est would be inaccessible by this route, which, besides, would offer lit- 
tle or no opportunity for carrying the necessary outfit and the objects 
of natural history I might possibly collect during the journey. The 
prospect of finding a skeleton of a sea-cow at any one of these places, 
seldom or never visited by the natives, was a very probable one, and as 
such a skeleton alone would be enough to load a boat even larger than 
ours, I resolved to hire six Aleuts, to man the boat of Mr. Grebnitzky, 
kindly placed at my disposal. Mr. Osche, in the service of the Alaska 
Company, who during a sojourn of several years had traversed the 
island in all directions on his hunting expeditions, and had thereby 
gained an extensive knowledge of the island and its products, joined 
the expedition as a volunteer; an assistance the more valuable, as 
without it I should hardly have been able to realize my intention. 
The special object of the expedition was to study the general natural 
history of the southern part of the island, to collect specimens of all 
kinds, as far as circumstances would permit; but especially to search 
for remains of the sea-cow. I also proposed to survey the island for fur- 
ther explorations, and to collect material for a more correct and detailed 
map than the one in existence. Besides I wished to identify the places 
mentioned by Steller in his narrative, in order to compare his description 
with the localities as they present themselves to-day, and to restore the 
original names. I also desired to visit the spots where Bering’s vessel 
was wrecked, where the ill-fated expedition wintered and where Steller 
made his observations on the sea-cow. 
The “circumnavigation” took place between August 21 and the 1st 
of September. It was attended by all the disagreeable consequences 
of fog and rain, of wind and surf, and the few skins which could be 
