TEANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



IN placing before the American public this book on Vitus Bering, 

 I desire to express my cordial thanks to those who by word 

 and deed have assisted me. I am especially grateful to Lieutenant 

 Frederick Schwatka, who, in the midst of pressing literary labors 

 consequent on his recent explorations among the cave and cliff 

 dwellers of the Sierra Madre Mountains, has been so exceedingly 

 kind as to write an introduction to the American edition of this 

 work, I feel confident that the introductory words of this doughty 

 explorer will secure for Bering that consideration from the Ameri- 

 can people to which he is fairly entitled. 



I find it a pleasant duty to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. 

 Leonhard Stejneger of the Smithsonian Institution, who has sent 

 me some valuable and interesting notes to the chapter on *'The 

 Stay on Bering Island " (Chapter XIX). Dr. Stejneger's notes are 

 of especial interest, for in the years 1882-'84 he spent eighteen 

 months on Bering Island in the service of the United States gov- 

 ernment, the object of his expedition being to study the general 

 natural history of the island, to collect specimens of all kinds, 

 but especially to search for remains of the sea-cow. He wished 

 also to identify the places mentioned by Steller, the famous natur- 

 alist of the Bering expedition, in order to compare his description 

 with the localities as they present themselves to-day, and to visit 

 the places where Bering's vessel was wrecked, where the ill-fated 

 expedition wintered, and where Steller made his observations on 

 the sea-cow. The results of Dr. Stejneger's investigations have 

 been published in " Proceedings of the United States National 

 Museum" and in various American and European scientific 



journals. 



xii 



