REFERENCES 353 



much a part of the period to see it in its true proportions. His 

 judgment of the men of his time is not critical; he usually rates 

 their deeds at a higher value than they deserve. His lenient 

 attitude may be partly explained by the fact that many of the 

 men of whom he was writing, or their friends, were yet alive, and 

 it was wise not to say anything which might offend. 



"Peter's des Grossen Verdienste um die Erweiterung der 

 geographischen Kenntnisse," the monograph by Karl Ernst von 

 Baer referred to above, gives an excellent summary of the Bering 

 voyages. It is scholarly, readable, and fair in its judgments. 

 Lauridsen's "Vitus Bering" has brought to light many interesting 

 facts. Bancroft's "History of Alaska" is of much value and 

 may be used with profit in connection with the sources. Dall's 

 "Critical Review of Bering's First Expedition" is the first 

 really critical discussion in English of the first expedition. 

 There are many helpful papers in the Morskoi Sbornik. 

 Fischer's "Sibirische Geschichte," Slovtsov's "Istoricheskoe 

 Obozryenie Sibiri," and Pallas' "Neue Nordische Beitrage" have 

 much important material. The journals of Cook, Laperouse, 

 Krusenstern, and other navigators in the North Pacific Ocean 

 help in understanding the difficulties and problems which con- 

 fronted the Russian sailors of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries. 



In conclusion it should be said that nearly all of the manuscript 

 material used in this work was photostated and is now deposited 

 in the Library of Congress at Washington, D. C, and the Hbrary 

 of the University of Washington at Seattle. As far as printed 

 material is concerned, the Yudin Collection of the Librar>^ of 

 Congress is richer for the study of this subject than any library 

 in W^estern Europe and, according to the statements of certain 

 Russian scholars, even than the Imperial Library at Petrograd. 



Bibliography 



In the following list of references the author's original en- 

 tries have been editorially amplified, classified, and commented 

 upon. This amplification includes the addition of a number of 



