120 VITUS BERIiq-G. 



narrow channels there are heavy breakers and swift 

 currents. 



For nearly a century after Spangberg, these obstacles 

 defied some of the world's bravest seamen. Captain 

 Gore, who was last in command of Cook's ships,, was 

 obliged to give up the task of charting this region ; La 

 Perouse succeeded in exploring only the Boussale chan- 

 nel ; the fogs forced Admiral Sarycheif (1792) to give 

 up his investigations here ; Captain Broughton (1796) 

 was able to circumnavigate only the most southerly 

 islands, without, however, succeeding in giving a cor- 

 rect representation of them ; and not until the early 

 part of this century did Golovnin succeed in charting 

 the group more accurately than Spangberg. All of 

 these difficulties were experienced in full measure 

 by Spangberg's expedition. In constant combat with 

 fogs, swift currents, and heavy seas along steep and 

 rocky coasts, he had, by the 3d of August, 1738, cir- 

 cumnavigated thirty-one islands (our maps have not 

 nearly so large a number), and at a latitude of 45° 30' 

 he reached the large island Nadeshda, (the Kompagni- 

 land of the Dutch, Urup), but, as he could nowhere 

 find a place to anchor, and as the nights were growing 

 dark and long, the ship's bread running short, and the 

 crew for a long time having been on half rations, he 

 turned back, and reached Bolsheretsk on the 17th of 

 August. Lieutenant Walton, who had parted company 

 with his chief and had sailed as far down as 43-° 30' 

 north latitude, thus reaching the parallel of Yezo, 

 arrived a few days later. As well as the other chiefs of 

 these expeditions, Spangberg had authority, without a 



