44 VITUS BERING. 



Siberia, in which the Chukchee peninsula assumed a 

 double horned shape, or — as Von Baer expresses it — 

 resembled a bulFs horn. 



He used Bering^s chart as a foundation when he had 

 no other, but he omitted Cape Chukotskoi, and on the 

 66th parallel he inserted Serdze Kamen. From this point 

 he made the coast recede, first westward, then northward 

 and eastward to a large circular peninsula situated be- 

 tween 72°-75° north latitude, which he called Chukots- 

 koi Noss. It is this imaginary peninsula which Pavlutski 

 crosses. He accordingly reaches the Pacific coast to the 

 north of Bering Strait, and in this way Miiller succeeds 

 in locating Serdze Kamen north of the strait. Hence, 

 according to Miiller's opinion, Bering had never doubled 

 the northeastern corner of Asia, and he had never been 

 out of the Pacific. ^'And although the coast beyond 

 Serdze Kamen," he says, ^^ turns westward, it forms only 

 a large bay, and the coast-line again takes a northerly 

 direction to Chukotskoi Noss, a large peninsula in a lati- 

 tude of 70° or more, and where it would first be possible 

 to say authoritatively that the two hemispheres were not 

 connected. But how could all this have been known on 

 the ship? The correct idea of the shape of the land of 

 the Chukchees and the peninsula bearing the same name, 

 is due to geographical investigations instituted by me at 

 Yakutsk in 1736 and 1737." 



Blinded by the archival dust of Yakutsk, Miiller con- 

 fused everything. Cape Chukotskoi, which Bering had 

 found to be in latitude 64° 18' N., was placed beyond 72° 

 N. ; Bering's most northerly point, which lay far out in 

 the sea, was changed to a headland in latitude 66° N., 



