204 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



island another island^* could several times be seen. And from 

 the southeastern cape I saw, although very indistinctly, in very 

 sunny and clear weather still another island ^^ to the southeast. 

 Similarly in the clearest weather I have always observed fog to 

 the west and southwest, namely over Kamchatka, and from this 

 deduced the nearness of this land. 



On the northern side there lies opposite Bering Island another 

 considerable island, which we estimated to be 12 to 15 miles 

 long,* likewise trending northwest-southeast and therefore 

 parallel to it. The channel between both is only about three 

 miles wide in the north west, ^^ and the island extends eastward 

 to sea far beyond Bering Island. The mountains on it are lower 

 than those on Bering Island, and at both its capes many high, 

 separate rock chimneys and pointed pillars rise from the sea. 

 It was this island that we first sighted and took to be Kamchatka 

 and, because the channel was obscured from our sight by the 

 land, [thought] it was connected with Bering Island. We did 

 not notice this mistake during the foggy and dark autumn 

 weather until some time after we had been shipwrecked on 

 Bering Island. If we had seen this channel before we had 

 landed we could have satisfactorily concluded that it was not 

 Kamchatka that we had before us, because off its shore in this 

 latitude no such island is known, and we could then have con- 

 tinued our voyage through this channel to Kamchatka just as 

 well as we did in 1742 on our return in the new vessel. ^^ 



6* There is no basis in fact for Steller's assumption of the existence of 

 these islands, unless they be the two parts of Copper Island as viewed 

 from Bering Island (see, above. Fig. 21, and Vol. i, p. 237, next-to-last 

 paragraph of footnote 130), although Steller, to judge by the next para- 

 graph, seems to realize quite correctly the general relationships of Copper 

 Island. More probably, as in a similar case {loc. cit., third paragraph from 

 bottom) a cloud bank was taken for land. 



* This is the island later become known by the name of Mednoi 

 Ostrov (Copper Island). — P. 



65 The MS here has in addition: "and 5 miles wide opposite the 

 southeastern cape of Bering Island." 



«6 On the confused orientation of the members of the expedition as the 

 St. Peter was nearing the Commander Islands, see, above, pp. I30-I35- 



