134 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



rascal !" and so he had to leave the council. At last, according 

 to the favorite 2°^ order of precedence, my turn came also; but 

 warned by the example of Ovtsin I answered: "I have never been 

 consulted in anything from the beginning, nor will my advice 

 be taken if it does not agree with what is wanted; besides, the 

 gentlemen themselves say that I am not a sailor; therefore I 

 would rather not say anything." — I was next asked if I, as a 

 person worthy of belief (being now for the first time so consid- 

 ered) would not at least add a written certificate regarding the 

 sickness and the miserable condition of the crew. — This I there- 

 upon undertook to do, in accord with my conscience. — And thus 

 it was decided to enter the bay and to land there but to send 

 from there to Lower Kamchatka Post for podvods (posthorses) 

 to transport the men. 



Although the situation contradicted the opinion that this was 

 Kamchatka, because the mainland of Kamchatka from Chu- 

 kotski Nos to Lopatka lies NE-SW, while the island before us, 

 afterwards called Bering's Island, lay NW-SE, yet the hope re- 

 mained that it might be a nos (headland) of Kamchatka, most of 

 which have such a position. On the other hand, the land seemed 

 too large to be a 7ios of Kamchatka, as no headland in Kam- 

 chatka is known that equals the -fifteen-mile-long Shipunski, 

 while by eye measure the island before us was at least twenty-five 

 miles long^"^'' and, besides, other projections extended from it very 

 far out to sea, so that by good rights it might have been con- 

 sidered a separate land rather than a promontory. In the end, 

 therefore, the conclusion would probably have to be drawn that 

 it could be neither the mainland of Kamchatka nor a promontory 

 of it, which [promontory, if it were a promontory], moreover, 

 no one on our vessel professed to know. However, the erroneous 



305 "favorite" does not occur in the MS. 



josa This probably refers to the whole stretch of land as it lay before 

 them, from the southeastern cape of Copper Island to the northeastern 

 cape of Bering Island. For this distance 25 German miles is a reasonable 

 approximation. Cape Shipunski may be considered 15 German miles 

 long if measured from its tip to midway of the embayment constituting 

 the Gulf of Kronotski (see Vol. i, PI. I). (J) 



