146 VITUS BERING. 



to Steller's narrative, the St. Peter must have touched 

 America farther west than Yakutat Bay, and considers 

 it quite probable that their anchoring place must be 

 sought at one of the passages leading into Controller 

 Bay, either between Cape Suckling (which on Kussian 

 maps is sometimes called Cape St. Elias) and Point 

 Le Mesurier, or between the islands Kayak and 

 Wingham. We shall soon see that this last supposition 

 is correct. 0. Peschel has not ventured wholly to accept 

 Krusenstern's opinion, but he nevertheless calls attention 

 to the fact that Bering Bay is not correctly located. He 

 fixes Bering's landing place west of Kayak Island, and 

 contends against considering Mt. St. Elias as the 

 promontory seen by Bering, something which would 

 seem quite superfluous.* 



This uncertainty is all the more striking, as, from 

 the beginning of this century, there have been accessible, 

 in the works of Sauer and Sarycheff, facts enough to 

 establish the identity of the island of St. Elias with the 

 present Kayak Island, and since the publication of 

 Bering's own map, in 1851, by the Russian Admiralty, 

 there can no longer be a shadow of a doubt. The map 

 is found in the appendix of this work, and hence a 

 comparison between the islands of St. Elias and Kayak 

 is possible (Map IV). The astronomical situation of the 

 islands, their position with reference to the mainland, 

 their surroundings, coast-lines, and geographical exten- 

 sion, the depths of the sea about both — everything proves 

 that they are identical; and, moreover, Sauer's and 

 Sarycheff's descriptions, which are quite independent of 



* Note 58. 



