Vm TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 



however, judges it proper to give this notice. 

 Though the miles mentioned appear to be 

 generally geographical miles, of sixty to a de- 

 gree, and are sometimes stated to be such, it 

 seems as if, in one or two solitary instances, 

 German miles, fifteen to a degree, should be 

 understood ; this refers to the statement of 

 the size of some of the small islands, one of 

 which is spoken of as being a quarter of a 

 mile in circumference, and yet to contain 

 woods into which the author took a walk. If 

 this island were only a quarter of an English 

 mile in circumference, the walk must have 

 been rather short ; and it should probably be a 

 German mile (four miles and a half English). 

 In the orthography of proper names of 

 persons and places, the Edinburgh Gazetteer 

 has been followed for the geographical part ; 

 and for the names of Lieutenant Kotzebue's 

 new discoveries, and of the persons whom he 

 has occasion to mention, his own ortho- 

 graphy has been preserved, as an attempt to 

 accommodate them to English pronunciation 

 would probably have produced combinations 

 of letters very different from those which an 

 Englishman would form, from hearing them 

 pronounced by the natives themselves. The 



