UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. 761 



carried their stores by boat and sledges across that peninsula; built another vessel in which they 

 sailed northward along the coast to Bering Strait, and then returned to Kamchatka and wiutered. 

 The next year they put to sea, made a brief search for land east of Kamchatka without success; 

 then circumuavigated the southern part of that peninsula and returned to Okhotsk, and thence to 

 St. Petersburg. 



The days of the journal which follows are nautical days, extending from one noou to the next; 

 and the calendar is the Julian one to which eleven days should be added for new style.. 



A SUMMARY OF CHAPLIN'S JOTJRJTATj DERIVED PROM THE WORK 

 OP VASILI NIKOLAIEVICH BERGH. 



[Translated from the Russian by W. H. Dall.] 



On the 24th of January, 1725, Midshipman Peter Chaplin with the advance party of the expe- 

 dition left the Admiralty College, the whole number amounting to 25 people: Lieutenant Chirikoff, 

 a surgeon, a geodesist, a garde marine officer, a quartermaster, clerk, 10 sailors, 2 ship carpenters, 

 an officer with three marines, 4 calkers and sailmakers and several other workmen, together with 

 25 wagonloads of material. 



On the 8th of February the party arrived at Vologdie, and on the 14th were joined by Fleet 

 Captain Vitus Ivanovich Bering, Lieutenant Spanberg, 2 mates, and 3 sailors. 



Instructions had been drawn up for Captain Bering by the Tsar Peter I, December 23, 1724, 

 and were comprised under the following three heads : 



INSTRUCTIONS. 



(1) There should be built on the Kamchatka [River], or at some other place adjacent, one or two boats with decks. 



(2) With these boats [you are directed] to sail along the coast which extends northwards and which is supposed 

 (since no one knows the end of it) to be continuous with America. 



(3) And therefore [you are directed] to seek the point where it connects with America and to go to some settle- 

 ment under European rnle, or if any European vessel is seen learn of it what the coast visited is called, which should 

 be taken down in writing, an authentic account prepared, placed on the chart, and brought back here. 



The officers of the expedition, partly brought from St. Petersburg, partly engaged at Tobolsk 

 or Okhotsk, were as follows : Captain of the First Bank Vitus Bering ; Lieutenants Alexie Chirikoff 

 and Martin Spanberg; Midshipman Peter Chaplin; Clerk Simeon Turchaninoff ; Surgeon Kieman; 



Geodesists Feodor Luzuin, Futiloff; Mates Richard Eugel, George Morisou; Chaplains 



Father Hilarion, Brother Ignatius Kozuirevskoi ; Commissary Durasoff; Artisans Kozloff and 

 Endoguroff ; Navigators Mashkoff and Butiu, together with the nobles Alexie and Ivan Shestakoff 

 aud Antipiu. 



[1725.J March 16, 1725, all had arrived safely at Tobolsk and Chaplin determined the latitude 

 of that place at 58° 05' K". and the variation of the compass to be 3° 18' easterly. [The route trav- 

 eled was laid down by courses and distances from the starting point, the general direction and 

 distance being computed by the aid of a traverse table, corrected by observations for latitude and 

 for the variation of the compass as often as possible. 



May 15. — They started on their long journey with four barges and seven canoes. [The 

 dates are of the Julian calendar and counted by the nautical day which begins at noon of the 

 civil date preceding, so that the first 12 hours of the day is a day in advauce of that noted 

 ordinarily; e. g., from noon of the 1st of the month to noon of the 2d would by their account be 

 wholly reckoned as the second day of the month, etc.] Chirikoff states in his journal that they 

 platted their route on a Mercator's projection, and in this way checked the accuracy of their work. 



May 22. — Chaplin was ordered to proceed in advance with 10 men to Yakutsk, where he 

 arrived on the 6th of September and reported to the local Voivod Poluekhtoff aud Prince Kirilie 

 Galitziu. The town at this time comprised about 300 houses. Chaplin dispatched some work- 

 men thence to Okhotsk, to get out timber for a vessel. [He seems to have wintered at Yakutsk, 

 while Bering's winter quarters were at Uinisk.] 



May 9, 1726. — Chaplin received orders from Captain Bering to prepare 1,000 pairs of rawhide 

 flour sacks. On the 1st of June the captain arrived at Yakutsk with 9 barges, Lieutenant Span- 



