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



" Likewise, both by a sheet of astronomical observations made by Bering 

 which came to me later, and by the same letters of M. de I'Isle, I knew that 

 the mouth of the river of Kamtehatka was found by astronomical determi- 

 nation to be in latitude 56° and some minutes. 



" Bering in his navigation doubled the southern point of this continent 

 [Kamshatka] in latitude 51° 10'^, as is expressly noted in the sheet of 

 observations which is now before me. 



" But though the solution of the difficulty in the case of the Land of 

 Jeco may be very simple and natural, yet it was not obvious to me, it may 

 be said, for Bering's voyage and observations caused me to recur to this 

 subject, and I can no longer doubt that the eastern coast of Tar tary should 

 be moved to the east as far as the maps of the Jesuits first indicated ; for 

 although M. de Strahlenberg in his excellent map of Siberia shows only 

 65° of longitude between Tobolsk and Okhotsk, and there are even less in 

 de risle's mai) of Tartary, yet Bering's map indicates that there are 74°. 



" It was found that it (Ohkotz) is 25° off of the meridian of Peking, 

 which the observations of P. Gaubil placed in 1L^° fifty-odd minutes from 

 Paris, so that it closely approximates the 139° which we have found it to 

 be from Bering's observations. This determination does not differ much 

 from the result of some astronomical observations, which, as I learn from 

 China, M. de I'Isle, now in Russia, contemplated using in order to ascer- 

 tain a^jproximately the longitude of Kamtchat. The observation upon 

 A\diich I place the most dejDendence, and which likewise gives the greatest 

 difference, is of an eclipse of the moon of February 25, 1728, of which the 

 end was observed on the west coast of Kamtshat in latitude 52° 46^ N., 

 Sirius having an altitude of 19° 18^ to the west, wherefrom M. de I'Isle ' 

 calculated that the true time answered to 6h. 52m. p. m. 



" This eclipse, the end especially, fell throughout Europe in the daytime, 

 but having been observed at Carthagena, West Indies, by D. Jean Herrera, 

 where it ended at 3h. 34m. a. m., a difference of 8h. 42m. is deduced be- 

 tween the meridians of Carthagena and the coast of Kamtshat." 



It is thus evident that Bering observed an eclipse of the moon in Kam- 

 shatka, and that the observations came into the hands of M. d'Anville. 



A. W. G. 



January 21, 1892. 



