210 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



dwellings by day and by night and stole everything that they 

 could carry away, including articles that were of no use to 

 them, like knives, sticks, bags, shoes, socks, caps, and so forth. 

 They knew in such an unbelievably cunning way how to roll 

 off a weight of several poods from our provision casks and to 

 steal the meat from thence that at first we could hardly ascribe 

 it to them. While skinning [sea] animals it often happened that 

 we stabbed two or three foxes with our knives, because they 

 wanted to tear the meat from our hands. However well we might 

 bury something and weight it down with stones, they not only 

 found it but, like human beings, pushed the stones away with 

 their shoulders and, lying under them, helped each other [do this] 

 with all their might. If we cached something up in the air on a 

 post they undermined the post so that it had to fall down or one of 

 them climbed up it like a monkey or a cat and threw down the 

 object with incredible skill and cunning. They observed all 

 that we did and accompanied us on whatever project we under- 

 took. If an animal was cast up by the sea they devoured it even 

 before one of us could reach it, to our great detriment; and if 

 they could not eat it all up at once they dragged it piecemeal to 

 the mountains, hid it from us under stones, and ran back and 

 forth as long as there was anything left to drag. While doing 

 this others stood guard and watched out for the arrival of any 

 of the men. If they saw someone coming from afar the whole 

 pack combined and dug together in the sand until they had the 

 sea otter or fur seal so well concealed under the ground that no 

 trace of it could be seen. At night when we camped in the open 

 they pulled the nightcaps and the gloves from and under our 

 heads and the sea otter covers and skins from under our bodies. 



lisher: Johann Heinrich Gross), under the title "Wunderliche Fata einiger 

 See-Fahrer, absonderlich Albert! Julii, eines gebohrnen Sachsen," etc., 

 and has since appeared in numerous editions, the last one a verbatim 

 reprint of the first edition, in 1902 (Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale, Nos. 

 108-120, B. Behr 's Verlag, Berlin). Albertus Julius, the Saxon "Robin- 

 son Crusoe," tells, on pp. 237-269 (1902 reprint, pp. 181-205), of his 

 encounters with the monkeys on the island. (S) 



