338 NOTE TO ACCOMPANY THE CHART 



30^ A few hours later, 3 p.m. of September 25, land was signted ; 

 one point of land bore W by S, another point bore ENE, and 

 a high snow-covered mountain, which they concluded was on the 

 mainland, bore NW by W^W. They sounded and got no 

 bottom, but nevertheless the ship was put about and pointed off 

 shore. According to our adjustments for errors in reckoning and 

 currents, the St. Peter was in longitude 175° 23' W, and the 

 snow-covered mountain was the 5,000-foot peak on Great Sitkin 

 Island. The land seen to the westward was the south shore of 

 Adak Island or one of the small islands close by, and to the east- 

 ward they saw the shores of Atka Island. No name was given 

 in the log to the land sighted on the 25th. 



BESET BY STORMS AND SCURVY 



A series of westerly gales now set in which continued with 

 varying violence, driving the ship to the eastward, until October 

 II. On September 30 a particularly violent gale broke upon the 

 little craft and rendered her all but helpless for two days. Steller 

 records that "We had never experienced the like of it before, and 

 it is hard to even imagine it. We expected to be smashed to 

 pieces any minute; we could neither stand, sit, nor lie down. No 

 one stood his watch, and the storm drove the ship where it willed. 

 Half of our crew were sick and feeble, and the other half were 

 on their feet only because they had to be, but on account of the 

 storm and the violent motion of boat were out of their heads." 



On October 1 1 the weather moderated and a noon observation 

 of the sun w^as obtained. The St. Peter was in latitude 48° 15', 

 longitude 168° 25' W, having been driven some 350 miles south- 

 east from the landfall of September 25. On October 12 they made 

 fair progress to the westward, but another storm forced them to 

 the northward until the 15th, when the wind again permitted 

 working to the westward. The scurvy was now in full swing; 32 

 of the ship's company were ill, several had died, and deaths were 

 occurring almost daily. Bering himself was affected and, 

 although he had found some temporary relief in the antiscorbutic 

 plants gathered by Steller on the Shumagin Islands, he gradually 



