128 VITUS BERING. 



searched long in vain for it with their field-glasses, 

 but finally discovered about thirty huts on that point 

 which shelters the harbor. In the middle of this cen- 

 tury it had about a thousand inhabitants, but since the 

 sale of Eussian America, Bering's town has been hope- 

 lessly on the decline. At present it has scarcely 600 

 inhabitants and is of importance only to the fur trade. 



Its first permanent inhabitants were brought from 

 the forts on the Kamchatka, and in the course of the 

 autumn there arrived from Anadyrskoi Ostrog a herd 

 of reindeer to sup^Dly the command of over two hundred 

 men with food, and thus spare other stores. This was 

 very necessary, for although Bering had left Okhotsk 

 with nearly two years' provisions, one of the ships, 

 through the carelessness of an officer, stranded in cross- 

 ing the Okhotsk bar, and the cargo, consisting of the 

 ship's bread for the voyage to America, was destroyed 

 and could not immediately be replaced. Some lesser 

 misfortunes in Avacha Bay further diminished the stores, 

 and hence, in the course of the winter, Bering found it 

 necessary to have large supplies brought across the 

 country from Bolsheretsk. The distance is about one 

 hundred and forty miles, and as nothing but dogs could 

 be procured, the natives were gathered from the remotest 

 quarters of the peninsula to accomplish this work of 

 transportation. The Kamshadales disliked journeys very 

 much. They had already suffered terribly under the 

 misrule of the Cossacks. They were treated cruelly, 

 and many died of overwork and want, and the rest lost 

 patience. The tribes in the vicinity of Tigil revolted. 

 The Cossack chief Kolessoff, who was constantly drunk. 



