l8  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    g6 
Places,  and  are  also  cloathed  with  Duck-skins."  I  am  of  Opinion,  that  the 
Situation  here  given  to  this  Island  is  a  Mistake,  and  that  it  must  be  looked  for 
over-against  Tschukotskoi  Noss.    [Miiller,  1761,  p.  xxii.] 
MiiUer  is  undoubtedly  correct  in  supposing  that  the  second  island 
lay  to  the  north  of  the  first  for  the  reference  is  evidently  to  Diomede 
Lsland,  whose  inhabitants  wear  labrets  of  walrus  ivory  and  whose 
villages  of  stone  houses,  built  into  the  hillside,  might  well  be  described 
as  "fortified  places."  However,  the  name  "  PeekeU  "  (Peekit)  is 
not  that  which  the  Chukchee  use  in  designating  the  Diomede  people 
but  refers  to  the  Eskimos  at  East  Cape,  on  the  Siberian  shore  just 
opposite  Diomede  Island.  As  to  the  first  island,  two  days  journey  from 
the  second,  this  could  only  have  been  St.  Lawrence ;  for  the  word 
"  Achjuchaljat  ",  the  name  given  the  inhabitants,  is  clearly  synony- 
mous with  "  Eiwhue'lit  ",  which  according  to  Bogoras  (1904-09,  p. 
20)  is  the  term  by  which  the  Chukchee  still  refer  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
Eskimos.  This  in  turn  is  synonymous  with  Owah'lat  (Wallit  accord- 
ing to  Moore,  p.  340) ,  the  name  of  one  of  the  groups  living  at  Gambell.' 
Bering's  second  expedition,  in  1741,  which  reached  the  Aleutian 
Islands  and  the  American  mainland  near  Cape  St.  Elias,  led  to  a  series 
of  private  or  commercial  expeditions  by  Russian  fur  traders,  all  of 
which  were  confined  to  southern  Alaska  and  the  Aleutian  region.  The 
only  official  expedition  to  follow  in  the  path  of  Bering's  earlier  dis- 
coveries was  that  of  Lieutenant  Synd  of  the  Russian  Navy  in  1764-68. 
As  a  result  of  this  expedition  a  number  of  nonexisting  islands  were 
charted  in  the  northern  part  of  Bering  Sea.  Synd  had  apparently 
sighted  St.  Lawrence  Island  from  a  distance  and  had  mistaken  the 
numerous  mountain  peaks,  connected  by  low  land,  for  separate  islands. 
For  some  years  afterward  St.  Lawrence  appeared  on  the  Russian  maps 
as  Synd's  Island. 
In  1778  Captain  Cook  had  a  distant  view  of  St.  Lawrence  Island 
from  the  eastward  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Anderson's  Island  after 
Dr.  William  Anderson,  surgeon  on  the  Discovery.  Later  in  the  same 
year,  approaching  more  closely,  Cook  named  the  eastern  part  of  the 
island  Clerke's  Island,  after  Captain  Clerke  of  the  Discovery,  not 
suspecting  its  connection  with  St.  Lawrence,  or  the  supposed  An- 
derson's Island.  On  this  occasion  Cook  observed  the  small  islands 
now  known  as  Punuk,  off  the  eastern  end  of  St.  Lawrence :  "  Near 
its  eastern  end  is  a  little  island,  which  is  remarkable  for  having  on 
'  In  1930  the  Owah'lat  were  represented  by  only  nine  people  living  in  two 
houses  at  the  extreme  north  end  of  the  village.  They  were  formerly  more 
numerous,  however,  and  are  recognized  by  the  other  groups  as  being  the 
original  inhabitants  of  the  village,  the  others  claiming  to  have  come  either  from 
Siberia  or  from  other  localities  on  St.  Lawrence  Island. 
