158 National Geographic Magazine. 
pursuing her homeward way uneventfully along the coast of | 
Kamchatka.) 
Fear A heavy storm arose with fog and the Gabriel finding 
herself dangerously close to the shore anchored near the land to 
ride it out. A note in Harris indicates that they may have been 
near Karaginski Island. 
Aug. 31 
Sept. 11° : 
anchor the cable had been so chafed by the rocky bottom that it 
parted and they lost the anchor, and were obliged to put to sea 
without recovering it. 
Sept. 1/12, 1728. At five o’clock in the afternoon they 
approached and at seven the next morning entered the mouth of 
the Kamchatka river, thus ending the voyage. 
At one p. M. the storm had abated, but in weighing 
Note.—The Gabriel was secured in a slough of the river and the party 
went up the river to the fort of Lower Kamchatka where Bering passed 
the winter. 
It is certain that the residents of Kamchatka and others more or less 
familiar with the reports of Cossack explorations in Chukchi-land were 
not altogether satisfied with the summary manner in which exploration 
had been given up by Bering, and his apparent assumption that there 
was no adjacent land to the eastward except small islands. More or 
less such discussion and criticism could hardly have failed to reach his 
ears, and his reflections may have led him to think that, after all, he 
had been too hasty. Trees not indigenous to Kamchatka had been 
seen floating near the shores, no heavy breakers ever proceeded from 
the eastward and it was even alleged that land or the loom of land 
might be seen to the east from the coast mountains in very clear 
weather. On account of these and other reasons* which were urged 
by residents of the country, Bering determined to make a new trial. 
Instead of proceeding directly to Okhotsk across Kamchatka he fitted 
out the Gabriel for another voyage. Beside the fact that Luzhin, one 
of his cartographers, had explored the Kurile Islands lying next to 
Kamchatka, the vessel Fortuna during Bering’s absence had doubled 
Cape Lopatka and was anchored in the Kamchatka River when Bering 
entered it on his return. It was therefore evident that the straits were 
navigable and the return voyage might be made that way. Spanberg 
was ordered to Bolsheretsk ‘‘on account of illness” (L.), and it is pos- 
sible he took the Fortuna back there since she had already returned to 
Bolsheretsk when Bering reached that port, on his way to Okhotsk. 
* The natives even claimed that a man had been stranded on the 
coast of Kamchatka in 1715, who stated that his own country lay to 
the eastward and contained forests with high trees and large rivers. 
(Lauridsen, op. cit. Am. ed. p. 51). Bering himself states that he made 
the search of 1729 at the instance of the Kamchatkan residents. 
