210 General A. W. Greely — Bering's First Voyage. 



printed at St. Petersburg in 1752 or 1753 ; tlie original Russian 

 I have not seen. It was translated, however, into French and 

 printed at Berlin (not dated) in 1753, under the following title : 

 " Lettre d'un officier cle la Marine Russienne. A un Seigneur 

 de la Cour concernant la carte des nouvelles decouvertes au nord 

 de la mer du Sud et le memoire qui y sert d'explication. Pub- 

 liee par M. de I'lsle. a Paris en 1752. Traduit de I'Original 

 Russe, k Berlin, chez Haude et Sperer, Libraires de la Cour et 

 de PAcademie Royale (1753)." 



This edition forms part of my library, and is the only copy 

 which I know of in the United States. It is not to be found in 

 the Library of Congress, the Astor Library, the Boston Athe- 

 naeum, or the ^Boston Public Library. It is not even in the 

 Royal Library at St. Petersburg, but, as might be anticipated, is 

 in the British Museum. I find it nowhere catalogued in any 

 bibliography of arctic or subarctic works. The French edition 

 was inserted, with some changes, it is believed, in the eighteenth 

 voluiue of the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Germanique. 



8. "A letter from a Russian Sea-Officer to a Person of Distinc- 

 tion at the Court of St. Petersburg, containing Remarks on Mr. 

 de risle's Chart and Memoir relative to the New Discoveries 

 North and East from Kamtschatka, together with some Observa- 

 tions on that Letter by Arthur Dobbs, Governor of East Carolina, 

 to which is added Mr. de ITsle's Explanatory Memoir on his 

 Chart." 8vo, 85 pp., London, 1754. 



The "Arthur Dobbs " who published this edition, and who 

 possibly was the translator thereof, is well known as the energetic 

 promoter of the discovery of the " northwest passage," and was 

 personally interested in discovery voyages to Hudson bay. The 

 explanatory memoir of de ITsle's chart is a translation of the 

 memoir previously mentioned as belonging to the map of 1752, 

 which memoir I have not been able to consult in the original 

 French. It may be added that Dobbs' reproduction of the 

 " Letter from a Russian naval officer " is not accurate, the transla- 

 tion in places being so carelessly or indifferently made that the 

 text cannot be relied on for critical purposes. 



This English translation is to be found neither in the Library 

 of Congress, the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, 

 nor in the Librar}'- of the American Geographic Society. It is, 

 however, in the Astor Library, and a second copy at one time 

 belonged to the library of Mr. J. C. Brevoort. 



