DISCOVERIES ABOUT BERING SEA. 23 



that the most hnportant of all the discoveries in Discovery of 



^ Pribilof Islands; 



this sea, that of the Pribilof Islands, was made, ^^^e *« search for 



furs. 



It was brought about by the same cause which 

 led to all the other enterprises in these regions, 

 the search for furs. The Russians had already 

 become acquainted with the fur-seals upon the 

 Commander Islands. They had also noticed 

 what is to-day known as the Pribilof herd, as it 

 passed semiannually through the channels of 

 the Aleutian Islands; and as the supply of 

 sea-otters diminished, they began exerting them- 

 selves to ascertain upon what shores these fur- 

 seals landed. Much time was spent in following 

 them both upon their northward and southward 

 courses. In 1786 the final search for them was 

 undertaken by Gerassim Pribilof, who for five 

 years had been eniployed by one of the leading 

 trading companies and was regarded as one of 

 the best navigators of that region. For three 

 weeks he cruised in the neighborhood of the 

 Pribilof group in a dense fog without finding 

 it. ''At last," says Veniaminof, ''fate, as if 

 relenting, yielded to the untiring efforts of an 

 enterprising man and lifted the curtain of fog, 

 revealing the eastern part of the island nearest 

 the Aleutian Archipelago . . . ."^ This 



1 Veniaminof's Notes ou the Islands of the Unalaska District, 

 St. Petersburg, 1840, part 1, p. 271. 



