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river-boats had to be built by the score, and also two
ships. Now his course was up the swift streams of
Siberia, and now on horseback or in sledges drawn by
dogs through the dreary and desolate forests of the
Yakuts and Tunguses. He employed several hundred
laborers and twice as many horses to do work which
modern ships can accomplish in a few weeks. Franklin,
Mackenzie, Schwatka, and many others have traversed
vast tracts of the Arctic regions, but their expeditions
in light sledges can not be compared with those
burdensome transports which Bering and his men dragged
from the Gulf of Finland to the shores of the Pacific.
In the early part of the year 1725 the expedition
was ready to start out from St. Petersburg. The
officers were the two Danes, Vitus Bering, captain and
chief, and Martin Spangberg, lieutenant and second in
command, and also the following: Lieut. Alexei Chirikoff,
Second Lieut. Peter Chaplin, the cartographers
Luskin and Patiloff, the mates, Richard Engel and
George Morison, Dr. Niemann, and Rev. Ilarion.[1] The
subordinates were principally sailors, carpenters,
sail-makers, blacksmiths, and other mechanics.
Peter the Great died Jan. 28, 1725;[2] but a part
of the expedition under the command of Lieut. Chirikoff
had already started on the 24th; Bering followed
Feb. 5. They passed the whole of the first summer
in toilsome expeditions overland and on rivers in
western Siberia. March 16, they arrived at Tobolsk,
whence, in May, the journey was continued with four
rafts and seven boats by way of the rivers Irtish, Obi,
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