136 VITUS BERING. 



Steller was born at Windsheim, Grermany, in 1709. He 

 first studied theology and had even begun to preach, when 

 the study of science suddenly drew him from the church. 

 He studied medicine and botany, passed the medical ex- 

 aminations in Berlin, and lectured on medicine in Halle. 

 Then, partly as a matter of necessity and partly from a 

 desire to travel, he went to Danzig, where he became sur- 

 geon on a Russian vessel, and finally, after a series of 

 vicissitudes, he landed in St. Petersburg as a lecturer in 

 the Academy of Science. According to his own desire he 

 went to Siberia as Gmelin's and Miiller^s assistant, and, 

 as these gentlemen found it altogether too uncomfortable 

 to travel any farther east than Yakutsk, he took upon 

 himself the exploration of Kamchatka. He was an 

 enthusiast in science, v/ho heeded neither obstacles nor 

 dangers, a keen and successful observer, who has enriched 

 science with several classical chapters, and had an ardent 

 and passionate nature that attacked without regard to 

 persons every form of injustice. His pen could be shaped 

 to epigrammatic sharpness, and his tongue spared no one. 

 In 1741, he wished to extend his investigations to Japan, 

 and had, when Bering sought to secure his services, sent 

 to the Academy a request to be permitted to participate 

 in Spangberg's third expedition. Steller had, however, 

 great hesitancy about leaving his special field of investiga- 

 tion without orders or permission, and Bering had to 

 assume all responsibility to the Senate and Academy, and 

 also secure for him from a council of all the ship's officers 

 an assurance of the position as mineralogist of the expe- 

 dition, before he could be induced to accept. Bering is 

 said to have charged him verbally to make observations 



