248 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



Bering's monument at tetropaulovsk. 



CHAPTER XXIT. 



GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER. 



His Birth. — Enters the Russian Service.— Scientific Journey to Kamchatka.— AccompatiJea Bering on liis 

 second Voyage of Discovery.— Lands on the Island of Kaiak.— Shameful Conduct of Bering.— Sliip- 

 wreck on Bering Island.— Bering's Death.— Return to Kamchatka.— Loss of Property. —Per.secutions 

 of the Siberian Authorities. — Frozen to Death at Tjunien. 



r^EORGE WILLIAi\I STELLER, one of tlie most distinginshed natuvaU 

 ^^ ists of the past century, Avas born at Winsheim, a small town in Fi-an- 

 conia, in the year IVOO. After completing his studies at tlie universities of 

 Wittenberg and Halle, he turned his thoughts to Russia, which, since the re- 

 forms of Czar Peter the Great, and the protection whicli that monarch and his 

 successors afforded to German learning, had become the land of promise for 

 all adventurous spirits. 



Having been appointed surgeon in the Russian army, which at that time was 

 besieging Danzig, he went with a transport of wounded soldiers, after the sur- 

 render of that town, to St. Petersburg, where he arrived in 1734. Here his 

 talents were soon appreciated ; after a few years he was named a member of 

 the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and sent by Government, in 1738, to exam- 

 ine the natural productions of Kamchatka. The ability and zeal with which 

 he fulfilled this mission is proved by the v.aluahle collections which he sent to 

 the Academy, and by his numerous memoirs, which are still read with interest 

 in the present day. 



In 1741 he accompanied Bering on his second voyage of discovery, the ob- 

 ject of which was to determine the distance of America from Kamchatka, and 

 to ascertain the separation or the junction of both continents in a higher 



