40 VITUS BERING. 



while it was in reality located on the coast of Meta 

 incognita beyond Davis Strait.* A similar error presents 

 itself in connection with Serdze Kamen. It can be his- 

 torically established that this name has been the object of 

 a double change, and that the present Serdze Kamen 

 on the northern coast of the Chukchee peninsula, has 

 nothing whatever to do with the history of Bering and 

 his voyage. This misunderstanding is, however, not of 

 recent date, for as early as in the first decade after the 

 voyage, it was assumed that Bering^s course, even after 

 he had passed East Cape, was along the coast. Thus I 

 find on a map by Hazius in Nuremberg, 1738, f and other 

 maps of about the same time, based on Bering^s map as 

 given by Du Halde, that the Gabriels turning point is 

 marked by a star near the coast with the same latitude as 

 the present Serdze Kamen, with the following explana- 

 tion : " Terminus litorum a Navarcho Beerings recog- 

 nitorum." This supposition gradually gained ground in 

 "West Europe as well as in Russia, especially so, too, as 

 Bering's new expedition and consequent death prevented 

 him from correcting the error, and as there for a genera- 

 tion was nothing more known of the voyage than the 

 resum6 which appears in Du Haiders work. Moreover, 

 the manner in which the coast-line in Bering's original 

 map is extended beyond East Cape, has only served to 

 strengthen the opinion. The fact is that Serdze Kamen 

 was a name unknown to Bering. It is found neither on 

 his map, in his own account, nor in the ship's journal, 

 and could not be so found for a very obvious reason — 

 Bering had never been there. 



* Note 18. t Note 19. 



