NOTES 



1. List of Russian Naval Officers. St. Petersburg, 1883.— V. 

 Berch: The First Russian Admirals. — Scheltema: Rusland en de 

 Nederlanden, III., p. 287. — L. Daae: JSformcBnd og Danske i 

 Rusland. 



As Berch hints that Bering had many enemies in the Depart- 

 ment of the Marine, I have made inquiries on this point. Admiral 

 Th. Wessalgo informs me that Berch's account is entirely without 

 foundation. Bering demanded and got his discharge in 1724, 

 because he was dissatisfied with the regulations governing pro- 

 motions. 



2. Sammlung Russ. GeschicMe, III., p. 50.— P. Avril's Accounts 

 of America, collected in Smolensk, 1686.— Vaugondie: Memoires, 

 p. 4. Les geographes des !& et IT siecles ont toujours pense que la 

 mer separait VAsie de VAmerique. 



See also a very interesting essay on the first Russian accounts of 

 America: The Great Land, Bolshaia Zemlia, in the Memoirs of the 

 Department of Hydrography (Zapiski), Vol. IX., p. 78. 



The name Anian Strait has arisen through a misunderstanding of 

 Marco Polo's book (lib. III., cap. 5). His Ania is no doubt the 

 present Anam, but the Dutch cartographers thought that this land 

 was in Northeast Asia, and called the strait that was said to separate 

 the continents the Strait of Anian. The name appears for the first 

 time on Gerh. Mercator's famous maritime chart of 1569. 



Dr. Soph. Ruge : Fretum Aniam, Dresden, 1873, p. 13. 



3. G. F. Miiller, in Schreiben ei?ies Russ. Officiers von der 

 Flotte, p. 14, seeks to take to himself all the honor for our knowledge 

 of Deshneff's journey, but this is not tenable. See Beitrdge zur 

 Kenntniss des russischen Reiches, XVI., 44. Bering did not collect 

 his information concerning Deshneff in Kamchatka, but in Yakutsk, 

 and referred Miiller to this matter. 



