148 VITUS BEKING. 



agree with those of Kayak, but do not agree with those 

 of Montague Island, which is surrounded by far more 

 considerable depths that have none of the above described 

 characteristics, and which, moreover, has so great a 

 circumference that Khitroff could not possibly have cir- 

 cumnavigated it in twelve hours, and finally, consid- 

 ering the fact that everything which Steller gives as 

 signs that a large current debouched near his anchor- 

 age finds an obvious explanation in the great Copper 

 or Atna estuary, in 60° 17' N., then it will be diffi- 

 cult to resist the conviction that Kayak is Bering's 

 St. Elias, and that Vancouver's Cajpe Hammond is liis 

 Cape St. Elias. 



Moreover, the traditions of the natives corroborate 

 this conclusion. While Billings^s expedition was in Prince 

 William^s Sound, says Sauer, an old man came on board 

 and related that every summer his tribe went on hunting 

 expeditions to Kayak. * Many years before, while he was 

 a boy, the first ship came to the island and anchored 

 close to its western coast. A boat was sent ashore, but 

 when it approached land all the natives fled, and not 

 until the ship had disappeared did they return to their 

 huts, where in their underground store-rooms they found 

 some beads, leaves (tobacco), an iron kettle, and some 

 other things. Sarycheff gives an account of this meet- 

 ing, which in the main agrees with Billings^s. These 

 stories also agree with Steller's account, f 



These facts have not before, so far as the author 

 knows, been linked together, but Sokoloff states, with- 

 out proof, however, that Bering's landfall was Kayak 



* Note 59. t Note 60. 



