THE VAKIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 187 



also served to show that the island belonged to the 

 Russian crown. This cross was renewed several times, 

 and in the sixties, so far as is known, twenty-four men 

 erected a monument to his honor in the governor's garden 

 (the old churchyard) in Petropavlovsk, where a monu- 

 ment to the unfortunate La Perouse is also found, and 

 where Cook's successor. Captain Clerke, found his last 

 resting place. 



With Bering that mental power, which had been the 

 life of these great geographical expeditions and driven 

 them forward toward their goal, was gone. We have seen 

 how his plans were conceived ; how through long and 

 dreary years he struggled in Siberia to combine and exe- 

 cute plans and purposes which only under the greatest 

 difficulties could be combined and executed ; how by his 

 quiet and persistent activity he endeavored to bridge the 

 chasm between means and measures, between ability to 

 do and a will to do, — a condition typical of the Russian 

 society of that time. We have seen how he surmounted 

 the obstacles presented by a far-off and unwilling gov- 

 ernment, a severe climate, poor assistants, and an inexpe- 

 rienced force of men. We have accompanied him on his 

 last expedition, which seems like the closing scene of a 

 tragedy, and like this ends with the death of the hero. 



He was torn away in the midst of his activity. 

 Through his enterprise a great continent was scientifically 

 explored, a vast Arctic coast, the longest in the world, 

 was charted, a new route to the western world was found, 

 and the way paved for Russian civilization beyond the 

 Pacific, while enormous sources of wealth — a Siberian 

 Eldorado — were opened on the Aleutian Islands for the 



