THE DISCOVERY OF BEHRING'S STRAIT 



415 



mariners by Peter the Great. He had risen to the rank of 

 captain in 1725, when the Empress Catherine, who was anxious 

 to promote discovery in the Northeast of Asia and to settle the 

 question, then doubtful, as to the existence of a strait between 

 Asia and America, appointed him to the command of an expe- 

 dition fitted out for that purpose. During a period of seven 

 years, having travelled overland to Kamschatka, he explored 

 rivers, sounded and surveyed the coasts, and sailed as far to the 

 northward as the season and the strength of his very inferior 

 boats would permit. In 1732, he was made captain-commander, 

 and the next year was ordered to conduct an expedition fitted 

 out on a very extensive scale for purposes of discovery. In 

 1740, he reached Okhotsk, where vessels had previously been 

 built for him. He sailed for Awatska Bay, where he founded 

 the settlement of Petropaulowski, known in English as the Har- 

 bor of Peter and Paul. Sailing to the northward, he landed upon 

 the American coast, giving name to Mount St. Elias, and then, 

 returning to the westward, struck the continent of Asia, finding 

 a strait fifty miles wide between the two continents at the point 

 where they approach each other the nearest. This, in honor of 

 its discoverer, is called Behring's Strait. 



The following description of this scene of desolation, as it first 

 broke upon Behring's eye, is due to the imagination of Eugene 

 Sue : — " The month of September," he says, " is at its close. The 

 equinox has come with darkness, and sullen night will soon 

 displace the short and gloomy days of the Pole. The sky, of a 

 dark violet color, is feebly lighted by a sun which dispenses no 

 heat, and whose white disk, scarcely elevated above the horizon, 

 pales before the dazzling brightness of the snow. To the north, 

 this desert is bounded by a coast bristling with black and gigantic 

 rocks. At the foot of their Titanic piles lies motionless the vast 

 ice-bound ocean. To the east appears a line of darkish green, 

 whence seem to creep forth numerous white and glassy icebergs. 

 This is the channel which now bears the name of Behring. Be- 



