LOSS OF THE ST. PETER. 277 
the fear of being blocked up by the ice, obliged Beerings to 
think of returning; and on the 18th of September he again 
reached the river of Kamtschatka. They quitted a second 
time the inhospitable coast of that country on the 5th of June, 
1729, but the wind blew from E. N. E. with such violence 
that they could not get out farther than sixty-eight leagues 
from it. As they found no land in that space, they altered their 
course, doubled the southernmost Cape of Kamtschatka, and 
cast anchor at Ochotzk. From that place Beerings traveled 
over land to Irkutzk in Siberia, and proceeded to Petersburgh, 
where he arrived on the 1st of March, 1730. 
On his return Beerings declared that, in the course of his 
navigation, being in the latitude of between 50 and 60 degrees, 
he had observed signs which seemed to indicate that there 
was some coast or land toward the east. This declaration 
was confirmed by the testimony of his lieutenants, Spanberg 
and Tschirikoff^ and they proposed a second expedition to 
Kamtschatka, to explore the regions which separated the Asi- 
atic continent from the north of America. The Russian go- 
vernment, sensible of the importance of the project, acquiesced 
in the proposal of Beerings, who was appointed to conduct 
the new enterprise, with the rank of commodore, while his 
two lieutenants were nominated captains under him. 
The academy of sciences immediately received an order 
to prepare a detail of all that was then known concerning 
Kamtschatka, as well as the countries and seas by w^hich it is 
surrounded. The care of digesting this information was en- 
trusted, by the academy, to M. Delisle, a French astronomer, 
and brother to the celebrated geographer of that name. That 
gentleman collected all the intelligence he could procure of 
Captain Beerings, and the accounts of preceding voyagers, 
prepared a chart of the seas and coasts which it was intended 
to explore, and accompanied it with a very extensive memoir. 
These were transmitted by the academy to the supreme senate, 
which, together with the college of admiralty and the acade- 
my, took every possible measure for insuring the success of 
the enterprise. These various bodies resolved at the same 
time to profit by the opportunity to try whether the passage 
by the north, so frequently attempted by the Dutch, was prac- 
ticable through the Frozen Ocean. 
For the glory of Russia, it should not be forgotten, that 
the academy received orders, on this occasion, to nominate 
two of its members, for the purpose of determining, by astro- 
aomical observation, the true position of the countries which 
24 
