Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XV.
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Steller was born at Windsheim, Germany, in 1709. He
first studied theology and had even begun to preach, when
the study of science suddenly drew him from the church.
He studied medicine and botany, passed the medical
examinations in Berlin, and lectured on medicine in Halle.
Then, partly as a matter of necessity and partly from a
desire to travel, he went to Danzig, where he became
surgeon on a Russian vessel, and finally, after a series of
vicissitudes, he landed in St. Petersburg as a lecturer in
the Academy of Science. According to his own desire he
went to Siberia as Gmelin’s and Müller’s assistant, and,
as these gentlemen found it altogether too uncomfortable
to travel any farther east than Yakutsk, he took upon
himself the exploration of Kamchatka. He was an
enthusiast in science, who heeded neither obstacles nor
dangers, a keen and successful observer, who has enriched
science with several classical chapters, and had an ardent
and passionate nature that attacked without regard to
persons every form of injustice. His pen could be shaped
to epigrammatic sharpness, and his tongue spared no one.
In 1741, he wished to extend his investigations to Japan,
and had, when Bering sought to secure his services, sent
to the Academy a request to be permitted to participate
in Spangberg’s third expedition. Steller had, however,
great hesitancy about leaving his special field of
investigation without orders or permission, and Bering had to
assume all responsibility to the Senate and Academy, and
also secure for him from a council of all the ship’s officers
an assurance of the position as mineralogist of the
expedition, before he could be induced to accept. Bering is
said to have charged him verbally to make observations
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