78 VITUS BERING. 



their duties by threats of cruel punishments and a con- 

 tinued stay in Siberia. It had been the intention to 

 recruit the expedition through the voluntary service of 

 Kussians, but the native officers showed but little inclina- 

 tion in this direction, and it was found necessary to fill 

 the vacancies by draft. Van Haven assures us that 

 Bering's expedition was looked upon in St. Petersburg as 

 a mild sort of banishment. 



The necessary instruments and some provisions were 

 obtained in St. Petersburg. The naval officers were sup- 

 plied with quadrants, thermometers, and nocturnals, the 

 surveyors with astrolabes and G-unter^s-chains, and the 

 Academists were authorized to take from the library of 

 the Academy all the works they needed, and, at the 

 expense of the crown, to purchase such as the library did 

 not contain. La Croyere carried with him a whole 

 magazine of instruments. For presents to the natives 

 two thousand rubles were appropriated. In N. Novgorod 

 and Kazan some other necessaries were obtained, but 

 the enormous ship-supplies and provisions, besides men, 

 horses, barges and other river boats, were to be provided 

 by the Siberian towns and country districts. 



The Siberian authorities received orders to make great 

 preparations. They were to buy venison, fish, and cod 

 liver oil, erect light-houses and magazines along the 

 Arctic coast, and dispatch commissions with large trans- 

 ports to the Pacific coast, so as to enable Bering to begin 

 his work of discovery without delay. These preparations 

 were to be followed by efforts toward the founding of 

 various works, such as iron and salt works at Okhotsk, a 

 smaller furnace at Yakutsk for the use of the expedition. 



