Fur-bearing Animals of the Pacific Slope. 177 



seen in the Imperial archives at St. Petersburg, display an amusing 

 disparity between two important articles, for of flour and ship- 

 biscuits there were requisitioned only five and a half tons, of brandy 

 1003 "buckets." 



The first start Behring made occurred in July, 1727, the object 

 of this N.E. cruise being to explore the coast of Kamchatka, and to 

 ascertain whether Asia and America were really separated by a 

 navigable channel. It took Behring three years and what years 

 of suffering to solve the mystery, for it was not until 1 730 that he 

 returned, some of his men in canoes, some overland. But he had 

 attained his object, and the Behring Straits immortalise his 

 name. 



The second expedition, which was destined to "discover" 

 America, started in 1740 from Okhotsk in two vessels the 

 St. Peter, commanded by Behring himself ; the St. Paul, by 

 Chirikoff or Tchirikow. 



They set sail from Okhotsk in September, 1740, but the voyage 

 began as it finally ended, with shipwreck on Siberia's barren coast. 

 Patching up the injuries sustained in the first stranding, they 

 again set sail the following spring, and in July the mutinous, scurvy- 

 stricken crew of the St. Peter at last sighted, when still far out at 

 sea, the great iceclad dome of North America's highest elevation 

 Mount St. Elias. Riding, as it seemed to them, far up in the 

 heavens for the coastline was enveloped in a dense bank of fog 

 one can imagine with what awe men reared on the steppes of 

 Siberia must have regarded this peak, rising to an elevation of 

 over iS.oooft. over their dwarf heads.* Behring's vessel never 

 'reached the home port, and neither did its commander; for 

 Behring and thirty of his crew succumbed to scurvy on the barren 

 island, on which a great gale cast the ship. It was named after 

 the explorer, whose bones found an unknown resting-place under 



* Chirikoff, as a matter of detail, actually sighted the coast some hours 

 earlier (on July 15), for the two vessels had separated in a gale and were 

 destined never to meet again. 



N 



