CONJECTURES AS TO LOCATION 143 



others, was with him and wondered at his composure and singu- 

 lar contentment. He asked what my idea was about this land. — 

 I answered that it did not look to me like Kamchatka; the great 

 number and tame assurance of the animals of itself clearly indi- 

 cated that it must be sparsely inhabited or not at all; but never- 

 theless it could not be far from Kamchatka, as the land plants 

 observed here occur in the same number, proportion, and size 

 as in Kamchatka, while on the other hand the peculiar plants 

 discovered in America are not found in the corresponding locali- 

 ties. Besides, I had found on the beach a poplar- wood window 

 shutter, with cross moldings, that some years ago the high 

 water had washed ashore and covered with sand near the place 

 where we later built our huts; I showed it and pointed out that 

 it was unquestionably of Russian workmanship and probably 

 from the ambars which stood at the mouth of the Kamchatka 

 River. The most likely place for which this land might be 

 taken 325 would be Cape Kronotski. Nevertheless, I did not fail 

 to make known my doubts as to this, based on the following 

 experience: I showed, namely, a piece of a fox trap that I had 

 found on the beach during the first day; on this the teeth, in- 

 stead of being of iron, consisted of so-called Entsde,^-^ of the 



instances the unit used in the report is the same as that used in the log 

 book. For 2 p. m. this would correspond to the civil date of November 7. 

 If, however, the 2 p. m. entry is not exact and Bering's removal from the 

 ship took place a few hours earlier, both the astronomical and the civil 

 date would be November 8. 



32f In the MS the following words are here inserted: "in default of 

 reliable information." The meaning of course is: If this is Kamchatka — 

 which is not probable — the most likely place is the Cape Kronotski 

 region. 



326 The MS reads: "consisted of a shell, the Entale of authors." The 

 shell alluded to is the well-known toothshell, or tuskshell (genus Den- 

 talium, from which systematic name the common name, "Entale," 

 was derived) , so called because of its shape, which resembles a walrus or 

 elephant tusk. No Dentalium, as far as I have been able to ascertain, has 

 been found in Kamchatka, and in that respect Steller's argument seems 

 to be sound. A species (D. rectiiis Carpenter) occurs in Alaska and the 

 eastern part of Bering Sea, but it is very brittle, entirely unsuited to serve 



