CHAPTER VIII. 

 Bering's plans for a second expedition. — the 



GREATEST GEOGRAPHICAL ENTERPRISE EVER UNDER- 

 TAKEN. 



A RCTIO exploration has a bewitching power over its 

 -^^ devotees. Bering and his companions did not 

 escape the enchantment. Hardly had they returned 

 from a five years' sojourn in the extremest corner of the 

 world, when they declared themselves willing to start 

 out again. As they had met with so much doubt and 

 opposition from scholars, — had learned that the world's 

 youngest marine lacked the courage to recognize its own 

 contributions to science, and, furthermore, as the Admir- 

 alty thought it had given strong reasons for doubting 

 Bering's results,* he proposed to make his future explo- 

 rations on a larger scale and remove all doubt, by chart- 

 ing the whole of this disputed part of the globe. 



April 30, 1730, only two months after his return, he 

 presented two plans to the Admiralty. These have been 

 found and published by Berch, and are of the greatest 

 importance in judging of Bering's true relation to the 

 Great Northern Expedition. In the first of these propo- 

 sitions he sets forth a series of suggestions for the 

 administration of East Siberia, and for a better utiliza- 



* Note 39. 

 61 



