2i8 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



to cross a wide sea.i°i According to information derived from 

 the Chukchi nation I am certain that these animals are to be 

 met with opposite in America from 58° to 66°, and pelts from 

 there have also been received in trade by way of Anadyrsk. 

 That on the Kamchatkan coast, however, no sea otter is to be 

 found above 56° is possibly due to the fact that Kamchatka 

 from there on may extend more northerly but America more 

 easterly,* whereby the sea lying between them assumes a 

 greater width and depth "^ than these animals, which only find 

 food on the bottom of the sea and, because they can not long 

 endure without inhaling air, must not let themselves down to a 

 great depth, "^ are able to cross; particularly as perhaps no 

 islands occur there, which is all the more probable because all 

 islands must be regarded as remnants of the mainland.^"* From 

 56° to 50° we found sea otters on the islands in sight of the 

 American mainland and on 60° near the mainland, at Cape 

 St. Elias itself, 500 miles east of Kamchatka. Probably "° this 

 sea otter is the same animal which the Brazilians on the west- 

 ern ^o^ side of America according to the testimony of Marggraf^"^ 



101 The migration of the sea otter Steller also discusses in the journal 

 (pp. 31-32, above; see also p. 32, footnote 57). 



* According to what is now known of the sea between the two con- 

 tinents the reason for this lies in the chain of islands which abuts just 

 in the region where the sea otters arrive in Kamchatka and [thus] leads 

 these animals over. — P. 



102 "and depth" is not in the MS. 



los The v/ords from "which only find food" to this point are not in 

 the MS. 



104 The relative clause in the MS reads: "which is natural to believe, 

 as the islands must be regarded as remnants torn from the mainland by 

 certain accidents." It is not at all sure, therefore, that Steller generalized 

 the origin of all islands as rendered by Pallas. (J) 



105 Instead of "Probably" the MS has "Without any doubt." 



io« Thus both in the MS and Pallas. Should be "eastern"; see also a 

 few lines below. 



1" The MS has in addition "and of Ray," i.e. John Ray (for some of his 

 works see above, p. 2, footnote 2, and p. 108, footnote 244). 



