LAND CONJECTURED 71 



which [their] stupidity had scoffed at so often ; for De Gama Land 

 was hitherto the name of the unknown coast of America, located 

 in the north and extending from east to west and could not be 

 regarded as a land separate from America. Nor could this land 

 be more than fifteen [German] miles wide, as otherwise we should 

 have sailed over it, or at least seen it, on our outward voyage. 



definitely open, as on the Dutch maps. Yezo, which on the Dutch charts 

 is similarly unbounded on the west, is described (ibid., p. 312) and shown 

 as an island separated by a strait from the Asiatic mainland. Japan is 

 described (p. 310) as being plotted from the accurate observations of the 

 Jesuits and subsequently the Dutch; the use of this accurate material is 

 attested by the detailed mesh into which the normal grid of the map has 

 been subdivided in this region. The coasts of northeastern Asia are 

 stated (p. 310) to be shown, and are so shown, according to the results of 

 Bering's first expedition (cf. Vol. i. Fig. 5). On the American side atten- 

 tion is called (p. 304) to the opening on the Pacific coast discovered by 

 Martin Aguilar (the mouth of the mythical River of the West), shown 

 on the map, and (p. 306) to the fact that the gulfs and bays followed in 

 the search for the Northwest Passage, such as Hudson Bay and Baffin 

 Bay, are essentially closed at their heads — a condition which is portrayed 

 on the map. Two routes of vessels are stated (p. 302) to be indicated, 

 that of Juan de Gama from China to New Spain and that of a French 

 vessel called the St. Antoine in the reverse direction: the latter route 

 appears clearly and so designated on the map, the former faintly without 

 designation along the coast of De Gama Land. Longitude is stated (p. 

 310) to be, and is, reckoned from the prime meridian of Ferro. All the 

 correspondences so far enumerated can be established by comparing the 

 memoir with the photograph of the map (PI. I). Comparison with the 

 map itself, so Professor Gallois informs us, furnishes seemingly conclusive 

 corroborative evidence in that the different countries are colored exactly 

 as stated in the memoir: red for China including Korea (p. 308), green 

 for the Russian dominions (p. 310), yellow for Japan (p. 310), and blue 

 for Yezo and the adjacent islands (p. 310). 



Whether the map in the archives of the Service Hydrographique de la 

 Marine is the identical map that Bering had with him on the St. Peter is 

 open to question. The passage in Miiller, op. cit., p. 194, reading in Jef- 

 ferys' translation, p. 38, "rfeLt5/e'5 map . . ., of which I have mentioned 

 above that it had been presented by the academy to the Senate; the 

 Senate had given it to the captain commander, that he might be directed 

 by it. De la Croyere had also a copy of it, which he produced in the 

 council" would seem to imply that Bering had the original map. Laurid- 

 sen. however, says (Vitus Bering, Chicago, 1889, p. 132) "When the 



