118 VITUS BEKIKG. 



spoken of these geographical deformities, which assumed 

 the most grotesque forms, and were at that time accepted 

 by the scientific world. The version of the brothers 

 De risle, which perhaps was the most sober, may be 

 seen from Map II. in the appendix. 



By Strahlenberg (1730) and by Bellin and Charlevoix 

 (1735), highly respected names among scholars of that 

 day, Kamchatka and Yezo were represented as forming a 

 great continent separated by narrow sounds from Japan, 

 which was continued on the meridian of Kamchatka 

 and Yezo, and from an eastern chain of islands — Staaten 

 Eiland and Kompagniland — that seemed to project into 

 the Pacific in the form of a continent. 



Kiriloff, who was familiar with Bering's map of east- 

 ern Asia, and made use of it, and who knew of the 

 most northerly Kuriles, made the necessary corrections 

 in his general map of Eussia (1734), but retained, in 

 regard to Yezo and Japan, a strangely unfortunate com- 

 position of Dutch and Strahlenberg accounts, and put 

 Nipon (Hondo) much too far to the east. In these 

 cartographical aids Spangberg found only errors and 

 confusion, and he got about the same kind of assist- 

 ance from his real predecessors in practical exploration. 

 Peschel tells that Ivan Kosyrefski, in the years 1712-13, 

 thoroughly investigated the Kurile chain ; there is, how- 

 ever, but little truth in this. Peschel gives G. F. 

 Miiller as his authority and refers to his book, but the 

 latter says explicitly on this point: "^^ All of Kosyref ski's 

 voyages were confined to the first two or three Kuriles ; 

 farther than this he did not go, and whatever he tells 

 of beyond them was obtained from the accounts of 



