214 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. view, the whole of that coaft, as well on the fide of Afia as on 
May ‘ that of America, of which his countrymen had been fo many 
years employed in acquiring a partial and imperfecSt know¬ 
ledge 
Excepting this mark of confidence, and the fet of prints 
I have already mentioned, we had brought nothing with 
us that was in the leaft worth his acceptance; for it fcarce 
deferves noticing, that I prevailed on his fon, a young boy, 
to accept of a filver watch I happened to have about me ; 
and I made his little daughter very happy with two pair of 
ear-rings, of French pafte. Befides thefe trifles, I left with 
Captain Shmaleff the thermometer I had ufed on my jour¬ 
ney ; and he promifed me, to keep an exadt regifter of the 
temperature of the air for one year, and to tranfmit it to 
Mr. Muller, with whom he had the pleafure of being ac¬ 
quainted. 
We dined this day at the Commander’s, who, ftudious on 
every occafion to gratify our curiofity, had, befides a num¬ 
ber of diflies drefled in our own way, prepared a great va¬ 
riety of others, after the Ruffian and Kamtfchadale manner. 
The afternoon was employed in taking a view of the town, 
and the adjacent country. Bolcheretfk is fituated in a low 
fwampy plain, that extends to the fea of Okotfk, being 
about forty miles long, and of a confiderable breadth. It 
* On this occafion, Major Behm permitted us to examine all the maps and charts that 
were in his poffeffion. Thofe relating to the peninfula of the Tfchutfki, were made in con¬ 
formity to the information collected by Plenifhner, between the years 1760 and 1770. 
As the charts of Plenifhner were afterward made ufe of, according to Mr. Coxe, in the 
compilation of the General Map of Ruffia,-publifhed by the Academy in 1776, it may be 
neceflary to obferve, that we found them exceedingly erroneous; and that the compilers 
of the General Map feem to have been led into fome miftakes on his authority. Thofe, 
in which the iflands on the coaft of America were laid down, we found to contain nothing 
new, and to be much lefs accurate than thofe we faw at Oonalafhka. 
lies 
