142 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



be good also; moreover, you do not know what might have hap- 

 pened to you at home." 



In the meantime I took this as a cue to consider how we could 

 protect ourselves against the winter by building a hut, in case it 

 turned out that we were not in Kamchatka but on an island. 

 That evening, therefore, I started to confer with Mr. Plenisner 

 about building a hut for all eventualities and assisting each other 

 with word and deed as good friends, no matter how the circum- 

 stances might shape themselves. Although for appearance's 

 sake, in order not to discourage me, he did not assent to my 

 opinion that this was an island, ^22 nevertheless he accepted my 

 plan in regard to the hut. 



On November 9 the wind was from the east and the weather 

 rather bearable. In the morning we went out to look for a site 

 and to collect wood and selected during the day the spot where 

 we built later on and where the whole command also set up their 

 huts and wintered. — However, we were far too busy killing 

 blue foxes, of which I and Mr. Plenisner in one day got sixty, 

 partly knocking them down with the axe and partly stabbing 

 them with a Yakut palma.^^^ — Towards evening we returned to 

 our old hut, where again some of the sick had been brought 

 ashore. 



On the loth of November the wind was from the east; in the 

 forenoon it was clear, in the afternoon cloudy, and during the 

 night the wind whirled much snow about. We carried all our 

 baggage a verst away to the place which we had selected the day 

 before for the building of a dwelling. In the meantime more 

 sick were brought ashore, among them also the Captain Com- 

 mander,324 who spent the evening and night in a tent. I, with 



322 The published version has "keine Insel," which is a misprint. The 

 MS has "eine Insel." 



323 The published version has pama, instead of palma as correctly 

 rendered previously (p. 47). On this type of knife see, above, footnote 85. 



324 According to the log book (Vol. i, p. 213) this took place at 2 p. M. 

 on November 9, astronomical time, or November 8, civil time (which is 

 the time used by Steller in this journal). Waxel's report {ibid., p. 277) 

 gives the date as November 8, presumably astronomical time, as in other 



