STREAMS 209 



down step by step over a rock which has been worn down in 

 the form of a wide stairway, as if an artist had sculptured it thus. 

 All the water, that of the inland lakes as well as the streams, is, 

 because of the stony bottom and the rapid motion, unusually 

 cold, pure, and light, in other words, wholesome. Its good effect 

 on our sick and emaciated bodies we all experienced with great 

 profit and joy.^^ 



[The Blue Fox]^* 



Of four-footed land animals there occur on Bering Island 

 only the stone or Arctic foxes (Lagopus), which doubtless have 

 been brought there on drift ice and which, fed on what was cast 

 up by the sea, have increased indescribably. I had opportunity 

 during our unfortunate sojourn on this island to become ac- 

 quainted only too closely with the nature of this animal, which 

 far surpasses the common fox in impudence, cunning, and 

 roguishness. The story of the countless tricks that they played 

 on us can compete successfully with the monkey story of Albertus 

 Julius on the island of Saxenburg.^^ They crowded into our 



'3 The MS ends here. What follows in the description of Bering Island 

 as published by Pallas has been taken from the preceding part of the 

 journal and possibly from other of Steller's manuscripts which passed 

 through Pallas' hands. In so far as can be done, the source will be in- 

 dicated of the sections now to follow. 



7* From what manuscript of Steller's Pallas took the description of the 

 blue fox, which begins here and continues to p. 216, is not clear. It may 

 have been from the report on land animals sent with Steller's report of 

 July 12, 1743, to the Senate but not received by that body (No. 18 in 

 Steller's accompanying list; see Pekarskii, Zapiski Imp. Akad. Nauk, 

 Vol. 15, Suppl. I, 1869, p. 26) or from Steller's descriptions of land 

 animals listed by his fellow-explorer Krasheninnikov (Nos. 31, :^2, 33; 

 see Pekarskii, Istoriya Akademii Nauk, Vol. i, St. Petersburg, 1870, 

 p. 615). 



There are numerous references to the blue fox in the journal, thus on 

 pp. 139, 142, 146-147, 173 (about which see footnote 415), and 183 (see 

 also note 445), above, and p. 216, below. For the modern zoological 

 identification of this animal see, above, footnote 317. 



^5 Steller's allusion to the monkey story of Albertus Julius on the 

 island of Saxenburg refers undoubtedly to J. G. Schnabel's famous novel 

 "Die Insel Felsenburg," which was published pseudonymously ("dem 

 Drucke iibergeben von Gisandern") first at Nordhausen, in 1731 (pub- 



