BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITI0:N^. 51 



birds of passage came to Kamchatka from the east. 

 The reports of the natives corroborated his inferences. 

 They declared that they were able, in very clear weather, 

 to see land in the east (Bering Island), and that in 

 the year 1715 a man had stranded there, who said that 

 his native land was far to the east and had large rivers 

 and forests with very high trees. All this led Bering 

 to believe that a large country lay toward the northeast 

 at no very great distance. 



In the summer of 1729, he started out to find this 

 country, leaying the mouth of the Kamchatka for 

 the east, July 6. If the wind had been favorable, he 

 would very soon have reached Bering Island, where 

 twelve years later he was buried. He must have been 

 very near this island, invisible to him, however, on 

 account of a fog ; but on the 8th of July he was struck 

 by a severe storm, which the frail vessel and the weather- 

 worn rigging could not defy, and hence on the 9th, 

 he headed for the southern point of Kamchatka. But 

 also on this voyage he did geographical service by 

 determining the location of the peninsula and the 

 northern Kurile Islands, as well as exploring the chan- 

 nel between them, and thus finding for the Eussian 

 mariner a new and easier route to Kamchatka. Berch 

 says, that although Bering had adverse winds on the 

 voyage to Bolsheretsk, all his computations are quite 

 accurate ; the difference in latitude between the lat- 

 ter place and lower Kamchatka Ostrog is given as 6° 29', 

 which is very nearly » correct. Bering likewise deter- 

 mined the location of Cape Lopatka at 51° N. lat. 



