146 National Geographic Magazine. 
some additions, errors, and mistranslations, much the same. As 
Bering does not give any longitude for Lower Kamchatka post it 
is highly improbable that he observed 3 it at that place, by means 
of a lunar eclipse or otherwise. 
Chirikoff’s observation of a lunar eclipse at Iimsk made that 
point 30° 13’ east longitude from Tobolsk or, approximately, 
97° 13’ east from Greenwich. His pedometric observations placed 
Ilimsk in 103° 44’ E. Gr. On recent charts Ilimsk is in about 
104° EK. Gr., so that the eclipse observation was in error about 64 
degrees. The meridian used on the voyage of 1728 was that of 
Lower Kamchatka, based on pedometric observations from Ilimsk 
computed by means of a traverse table. These, according to 
Chirikoff’s journal, gave for the Lower Kamchatka post a meridian 
of 126° 01' 49” east from St. Petersburg or about 156° 02’ east 
from Greenwich, which is in error about six and a quarter 
degrees. Discarding the eclipse observation and using only the 
pedometric observations from Tobolsk to Lower Kamchatka the 
result for that place is 162° 33’ EK. Gr., which is very near the 
truth. I have no doubt that this result is what was finally used 
in the chart (though not in the original report) and, therefore, 
that all the observations of Lauridsen and others in regard to the 
alleged eclipse in Kamchatka are based on a misunderstanding 
and without value. 
SYNOPSIS OF THE VOYAGE: 
The dates are reduced to the Julian calendar from the nautical 
account. The longitude is stated in degrees east from Greenwich. 
June 10/21, 1728. The vessel, which was named the Gabriel, 
was launched at the Lower Kamchatka fort and loaded with a 
year’s supply of provisions for forty men (B. C. H. M.). She 
resembled the packet boats used in the Baltic. 
Notes.—This vessel was constructed of the Kamchatkan spruce, a 
species according to Kittlitz closely resembling Abies canadensis of 
America. There is alsoa smaller species, A. mertensiana, and by dis- 
tillation of these two trees the deficiency in their supply of tar or pitch 
was madeup. The rigging, sail-cloth, oakum and anchors had been 
transferred with great labor from Tobolsk. The planking and timbers 
were doubtless fastened with trenails and not with spikes, so the 
amount of iron used was much smaller than it would be in most 
modern vessels. The provisioning of the expedition is the subject 
of a fanciful paragraph garbled from Bering’s original report, which 
