i8 BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION 



is a great sin. It is a practice among the Kamchadals, if one of them 

 is very sick, even a father or a mother, to take him out into the forest and 

 leave him there, be it summer cr winter, vfith just enough food to last a 

 week, and as a result many die. The homes of the dead are not again 

 occupied, and the dead themselves are not buried but are thrown into 

 the woods, where the dogs devour them.^s The Korj'aks burn their dead; 

 this custom is now forbidden, but the law is not strictly enforced. 



When I reached Lower Kamchatka Post the timber for our ship was 

 in large part ready. We went to work on her April 4, 1728, and with 

 the help of God had her completed by July lo.^^ The timber we hauled 

 on dog teams. Tar, since we had not brought any with us and the 

 natives had none on hand as they did not know how to make it, we 

 manufactured out of a tree known there as listvennik.^^ For lack of any- 

 thing better to take along on the sea voyage, we distilled liquor from grass 

 by a process known in that country ;36 salt we boiled out of sea water; 

 butter we made from fish oil; and in place of meat we took salt fish. 

 We had on board enough provisions to last 40 men a year. On July 14 

 we sailed from the mouth of the Kamchatka River out to sea and fol- 

 lowed the course laid down by the instructions of His Imperial Majesty 

 Peter the Great and here marked on the chart. 



On August 8, when we were in latitude 64° 30' N., eight men who 

 claimed to be Chukchi (a people known for a long time to the Russians 

 of the country) rowed to us from the shore in a leathern boat and, when 

 near, asked who we were and why we came. On being invited on board, 

 they put one man over, who, with the help of large inflated seal bladders, 

 swam over to have a talk with us. A little later the boat moved up to 

 us and the men in it told us that large numbers of Chukchi live along 

 the shore, that a short distance from here the coast turns to the west, 

 and that not far ahead of us is an island. We located this island, which 

 we named St. Lawrence, in honor of the day, and found on it a few huts 

 but no people, although I twice sent the midshipman to look for them. 



By August IS we came to latitude 67° 18' N. and turned back because 



33 A fuller and better account of the natives is to be found in S. P. Krasheninni- 

 kov's "History of Kamchatka," St. Petersburg, I755, and G. W. Steller's "Be- 

 schreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka," Frankfort and Leipzig, 1774. 

 ^ She was christened St. Gabriel. ^s Larch. 

 ^ According to Steller the Hquor is made in the following manner: 



"Der Brandtewein wird aber folgendermassen angesetzt. Man gieset auf 2 

 Pud susses Kraut 4 Eimer warmes und laues Wasser, leget zum Ferment ent- 

 weder was von der Destination iibrig geblieben hinein, wovon er aber einen 

 iiblen Geruch oder Geschmack bekommt, oder Beeren von Schimalost ["Shima- 

 lost" is the Kamchatka honeysuckle bush (Lonicera caerulea) which bears 

 delicious blue berries. — L. Stejneger.] wovon er sehr stark, angenehmer wird, 

 und mehr Brandtewein giebet, oder man fermentiret ihn mit eingesauertem 

 Mehl; nach Verlauf 24 Stunden wird er destilliret, und bekommt man einen 

 Eimer Brandtewein." ("Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka," p. 86.) 



