190 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



main 3 a conception may be gained of all the other numerous 

 islands which lie in the Canal de Pico,* which [islands], so far as 



Island, on which Steller, shipwrecked, was forced to winter in the year 

 i7[4i-]42 and where Captain Commodore Bering, whose vessel stranded 

 there, died of scurvy and left his name to this island. This description 

 really forms the conclusion of Steller's journal of his sea voyage under- 

 taken in Bering's company from Kamchatka for the discovery of the 

 mainland of America. It, as likewise this journal, has, to be sure, been 

 inserted in abridged form by the world-renowned State Councilor 

 Miiller in his 'Sammlung Russischer Geschichte'; but it certainly 

 deserved to be printed in its entirety as Steller put it on paper. The 

 author seems to have written it down, in complete leisure from first- 

 hand materials and while fresh in his memory, in Kamchatka, where he 

 stayed for a while after his return from this island; hence in the original 

 almost nothing was crossed out. Except for the correction of certain 

 carelessnesses of style I publish it unchanged so that Steller's powers of 

 observation may appear unadulterated. Perhaps I shall later let follow 

 the journal of his sea voyage, a copy from which I also possess. The 

 following are Steller's words." 



The editor of Steller's " Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka" 

 was J. B. Scherer (see, above, p. viii and footnote 4 on p. ix). The 

 "reprehensible tales" against which Pallas protests occur in a life of 

 Steller with which Scherer introduces the volume. This is written in 

 a careless and rambling manner and is controversial in tone. Scherer 

 makes {loc. cit., pp. 15-16) Steller after his return to Russia retrace his 

 steps from near Novgorod across two-thirds of Siberia to Irkutsk, then 

 turn westward again and get as far as the vicinity of Moscow,, and 

 finally resume his eastward march, to die in Tyumen in western Siberia. 

 The facts are, however, as set forth in the biographical note in the 

 present volume (see above, pp. 3-4). With regard to the immediate 

 cause of Steller's death Scherer's account does not differ materially from 

 Pallas' account. In this account Pallas, however, adds valuable authentic 

 details. Pallas' strictures as to Scherer's careless editing of Steller's 

 "Beschreibung" are fully justified, although it should be remembered 

 that this work thus became available to posterity, an advantage which 

 many of Steller's other manuscripts did not share. 



2 In the MS the description of Bering Island, as stated above, p. vii, 

 forms an integral part of the account of the expedition, as, indeed, is 

 stated in its title page (see above, p. 9, footnote i). The description of 

 the island follows the narrative of the voyage without even so much as a 

 paragraph indentation to mark the break. The first few lines, w^hich 

 Pallas has condensed into the words up to this point, there read: "Now 

 that the happenings of our voyage from June 5, 1741- to our arrival in 



