100 VITUS BERING. 



Firewood must be obtained at a distance of four to 

 five miles, drinking water one to two miles, while 

 timber and joints for shipbuilding must be floated 

 down the river twenty-five miles." But as a place for 

 a dock-yard, as a harbor and haven of refuge for large 

 ships, the location had such great advantages that these 

 difficulties had to be overcome. 



Spangberg^s work had made the place. His men 

 had worked clay, made tiles, and built houses, and 

 when Bering arrived the ships Archangel Michael and 

 Hope lay fully equii^ped in the harbor. Bering's 

 old ships Fortuna and Gabriel had been repaired, 

 and Spangberg lacked only an adequate supply of 

 provisions to begin his expedition to Japan in the 

 autumn of 1737. 



But the provision transports, as usual, moved on 

 very slowly and with great difficulty. In Okhotsk 

 Spangberg's men were constantly in distress. They 

 received only the rations of flour and rice authorized 

 by law, and at long intervals some beef which Bering 

 had bought in Yakutsk. On account of this scarcity 

 of provisions Spangberg was obliged partially to stop 

 work on the vessels. A part of his force was per- 

 mitted to go a-fishing, a part were sent to the maga- 

 zines in the country for their maintenance, while 

 others were detached to assist in the work of trans- 

 portation ; hence it was with only a small force that 

 he could continue work on the ships for the American 

 voyage, the packet-boats St. Peter and St. Paul. 



Sokoloff says : " Bering stayed three years in Ok- 

 hotsk, exerting himself to the utmost in equipping 



