SARICHEF'S ATLAS, 1826 

 By Marcus Baker 



IN the year 1826 the Russian Hy- 

 drographic Office, then under the 

 direction of Vice- Admiral Gavrila 

 Andreevich Sarichef, published a large 

 folio atlas of northwestern America, 

 northeastern Asia, and the waters be- 

 tween. This atlas comprises 33 double- 

 page sheets, of which 26 are charts 

 and 7 are views. It appears to be a 

 collection of charts made during the 

 two or three decades preceding 1826, in 

 which year they were collected together, 

 numbered, and issued in atlas form. 

 The first 6 are general charts and the 

 remaining 20 special charts of various 

 harbors, islands, etc. Some of these 

 are copied from Vancouver, Kotzebue, 

 and others, and some are from original 

 surveys by Sarichef and others. Sari- 

 chef was one of the companions of Com- 

 modore Joseph Billings, who, by com- 

 mand of the Russian Empress Catherine 

 II, conducted a secret astronomical ex- 

 pedition in and about Bering Sea in 

 1785 to 1794. The earliest Russian sur- 

 veys about Unalaska, after Krenitzen 

 and Levashef, 1 768-1 769, were made by 

 Sarichef in or about 1790-179 1. 



Some of the separate charts, after- 

 ward brought together to form this atlas, 

 are to be found in Washington in the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, some 

 in the Hydrographic Office, and perhaps 

 some in private hands. No copy of the 

 atlas, however, so far as I am aware, 

 exists in Washington. Indeed, the only 

 copy of it in the United States, so far as 

 I know, is now owned by and in the 

 possession of Professor George David- 

 son, of San Francisco. While I was 

 engaged, in 1 900-1 901, in making a 

 dictionary of Alaskan geographic names, 

 Professor Davidson very kindly placed 

 at my disposal his copy of this scarce 

 atlas, a courtesy for which I here make 



grateful acknowledgment. Professor 

 Davidson also permitted photographs of 

 it to be made, and accordingl}' photo- 

 graphs were made of those sheets which 

 specialty relate to Alaska. One set of 

 these photographs has been deposited in 

 the Library of Congress, one in the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, one in the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, and one in the 

 National Geographic Society. 



On account of the rarit} r of this atlas 

 and its importance for the histor}- of 

 Alaskan exploration and survey, it has 

 seemed worth while to translate and 

 publish a table of its contents. The 

 atlas itself, Professor Davidson's copy, 

 contains no table of contents, and it is 

 therefore uncertain whether any was 

 published. The following table is made 

 up from the sheets themselves, the en- 

 tries being translations of the titles 

 engraved upon the sheets : 



TABLE OF CONTENTS OF SARICHEF'S 

 ATLAS, 1826 



Title-page. Atlas of the northern part 

 of the Pacific Ocean, compiled in sheets 

 by the Imperial Navy Department from 

 the latest information and maps, 1826, 

 under the direction of Vice-Admiral 

 and Hydrographer Sarichef I. En- 

 graved and printed at the Hydrographic 

 Office. 



Sheet 1. Mercator's chart of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean and part of the Arctic Ocean. 



Sheet 2. Mercator's chart of the Ok- 

 hotsk Sea and part of the Pacific Ocean, 

 together with Kamchatka between lati- 

 tude 46 30' and 62 ° 30' north, longi- 

 tude 104 and 144 30' [east] from St. 

 Petersburg. 



Sheet 3. Mercator's chart of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, with the Aleutian Islands 

 and parts of northwestern America, from 



