viii PREFACE 



found is not the original seems apparent for two reasons: (i) 

 it is not in Steller's handwriting, as a comparison with that 

 handwriting^ will show; (2) it does not lack the sheet containing 

 the account of the happenings from August 4 to 11, 1 741, nor 

 is the sheet mutilated on which are described the events of 

 September 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 24 — defects which character- 

 ized the original, Pallas says,^ when it was in his hands. That 

 the present manuscript is also not the transcript made for Pallas 

 from the original seems probable because it shows no trace of his 

 many editorial changes or corrections, signs of which may 

 plausibly be expected to have been evident on that transcript. 

 On the other hand, that the manuscript is a direct copy from the 

 original seems highly probable from the fact that, in the cor- 

 responding places, it is practically identical, word for word, 

 with certain passages which J. B. Scherer quoted from the 

 journal when he published Steller's " Beschreibung von dem 

 Lande Kamtschatka" in 1774.^ In a review of the book in 1775 



Tagebuch . . . ist mir im J. 1769 von dem seeligen Professor der 

 Geschichte Herrn Fischer . . . im Original mitgetheilt und eine 

 Abschrift davon zu nehmen erlaubt worden"). The two prefaces are 

 translated below as footnotes at the beginning of the description of 

 Bering Island (footnote i on pp. 189-190) and of the journal (p. 9, 

 footnote 2) respectively. 



2 Facsimile of portion of Steller's letter of November 4. 1742, to 

 Gmelin, below, p. 248. Compare with specimen pages from manuscript 

 also reproduced below (pp. 38, 165, 166). 



3 Neue Nordische Beytrdge, Vol. 5, 1793, footnotes on pp. 174 and 206 

 (translated below, in the journal, as asterisk footnotes following footnotes 

 132 and 248 respectively). 



* The following parallel passages from the manuscript, Scherer, and 



Pallas are typical and may serve as an example. 



MS Scherer Pallas 



die Ursache ist, dass wir die Ursache ist, dass wir Die Ursache ist, weil 



wahrender Zeit bey be- wahrender Zeit bey man, bey bestandig 



standig favorablen \Vin- bestandig favorablem gunstigem Wind und 



de und Wetter nur imer Winde und Wetter nur Wetter nur immer fort- 



fortliefen. Himmel und immer fortliefen. Him- lief, nichts als Himmel 



Wasser sahen, particu- mel und Wasser sahen, und Wasser sahe und 



las exclamandi und ad- particulas exclamandi von den Officieren nur 



mirandi von den Her- und admirandi von den Ausrufungen und Be- 



ren Officiren horeten. HerrenSee-Officiershor- wunderungsausdriicke 



(fol. 8) ten. hdrte: 



(prefatory life of Stel- {N. N. B., Vol. 5. P- 



ler, p. lo) 147; or book, p. 19) 



