XI.] DEATH OF BERING. 249 



vessel to anchor off the south-east coast. It was not a moment too 

 soon, for the main riggmg had parted on both sides, and the vessel 

 was as hopelessly disabled as her crew. Waxel and Steller landed 

 on the 6th. A stream of water as yet unfrozen was found, but not 

 a trace of even the smallest brushwood was to be seen. It was 

 decided to enlarge the trenches between some sandhills they 

 discovered in the neighbourhood, and to roof them in with canvas. 

 These wretched substitutes for huts were prepared upon the follow- 

 ing day, and on November 8th they commenced to land the invalids. 



Of the horrors of that awful time the survivors have left us a 

 detailed account. Of those who had been confined to their hammocks 

 below deck not one eventually escaped. Some died immediately on 

 breathing the cold air, others as they lay on deck waiting to be 

 carried into the boats. Men who had left the ship alive expired 

 ere they reached the land, and others before many hours of 

 the long-looked-for life ashore that was to give them back their 

 health had passed. Each day those who were able to undertake 

 the task continued the landing of the dead and dying until all had 

 been brought ashore. Each day their nvmiber was diminished by 

 death. The survivors had. scarce strength enough to bury their 

 comrades ; and to add to the horrors of their situation, bands of 

 foxes, with which the island appeared to swarm, haunted the 

 encampment, and fed upon the corpses before they could be 

 interred. On November 9th Bering was brought on shore. He 

 had been long ill, and his condition was evidently hopeless. 

 Towards the end he became mistrustful of everybody, even of 

 Steller, with whom he had been on terms of the closest friend- 

 ship. His death, which occurred on December 8th, was touching 

 in its misery. The sides of the ditch in which he lay had gradually 

 crumbled down, and his feet became buried in the sand. He 

 would not permit it to be removed, saying that it kept him warm, 

 and thus, little by little, it accumulated until it had covered the 

 abdomen. He was buried almost before he died. 



Shortly before the death of their commander the survivors had 



