BAKBB.] 95 Ber— Ber. 



Bering; .Several ^eographie features in and adjacent to Alaska have been named 

 after Commander Bering, tlie pioneer explorer of northwest America. So 

 applied the name has been variously spelled Behring, Bhering, Beering, 

 etc. Nearly all are now agreed that the spelling should be that used by- 

 Bering himself, viz, Bering. Capt. Commander Ivan Ivanovich Bering, 

 selected by the Tsar, Peter the Great, for the work of exploring eastern 

 Asia and western America, was the son of Jonas Svendsen by his second 

 wife, Anne Pedersdatter Bering, and was born at Horsens, in Jutland, in 

 the summer of 1681. On his mother's side he was descended from the 

 distinguished Bering family which, during the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, flourished in various parts of Denmark, and included a number 

 of ministers and judicial officers. Baptized the 12th of August, 1681, he 

 received the baptismal name Vitus Jonassen Bering. On entering the 

 Russian navy, however, he took, as was the custom of the Danish and 

 Norwegian officers serving in Russia, a new or Russianized form of name. 

 This form is Ivan Ivanovich Bering. The name Ivanovich is an exact 

 translation of Jonassen; in English, Johnson or John's son. All the Russian 

 and Danish records agree as to the spelling of the family name; both in Dan- 

 ish and in Russian it is Bering. His autograph is always Bering. 



The insertion of an // in the name, giving the form Behring, appears to 

 have been made in Germany. 



In 1748 was published Harris's Collection of Voyages, in two folio 

 volumes. In the second volume, pages 1016-1041, is contained "A distinct 

 account of part of the northeast frontier of the Russian Empire, commonly 

 called the countr}' of Kamschatka or Kamschatska, including the voyages 

 of Captain Behring for discovering toward the east, etc., collected from the 

 ]>est authorities, both printed and manuscript." This account was pre- 

 pared by Dr. Campbell, who made use of the form Behring. From this 

 it may be inferred, as pointed out by 'Sir. William H. Dall, that Dr. Camp- 

 bell did not have access to original documents, but got his material from 

 German sources or from German translations of the original. As Harris's 

 Voyages is an elaborate work, long accepted as a standard, the use of the 

 form Behring gained wide adoption among English-speaking people. 

 That the form Bering should be adopted, however, appears (1) because it is 

 the form always used by Bering himself, by his ancestors for five generations 

 at least, and by his descendants; (2) because it is the form almost, though 

 not quite, universally adopted in all non-English works, and (3) because 

 even in English works it is gradually superseding the form Behring. 



On this subject see note by Dr. T. N. Gill in report upon the condition 

 of affairs in Alaska, by H. W. Elliott, Washington, 1875, p. 246; also in 

 report on the seal islands of Alaska by same, pp. 151-2, this being contained 

 in Tenth Census of the United States, AVashington, 1884. 



For information touching Bering and his family see Vitus J. Bering 

 og de Russiske opdagelsesrejser fra, 1725-1743, af P. Lauridsen, 12mo, 

 Kj0benhavn, Hegel & S0n, 1885, pp. 4-6. See also translation of same, 

 entitled, Russian Explorations, 1725-1743, Vitus Bering, the discoverer of 

 Bering Strait, by Peter Lauridsen, etc., translated from the Danish by 

 Julius E. Olson, 12mo, Chicago, Griggs & Co., 1889, pp. ix, xii, 10, 11. 

 See also note on Bering's name by W. H. Dall in The National Geographic 

 Magazine, 8°, Washington, 1890. Vol. II, No. 2, p. 122. 



The Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition, has Behring's Island and 

 Behring' s Strait. Johnson's New Universal Cycloptedia, New York, 1877, 

 has Behring or Beering (Vitus). The American Cyclopaedia, 1883, vol. 2, 

 p. 480, has Behring or Bering (Vitus). Appleton's Cylopsedia of Ameri- 

 can Biography, New York, 1887, vol. 1, p. 245, has Vitus Bering. 



