Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter VII.
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birds of passage came to Kamchatka from the east.
The reports of the natives corroborated his inferences.
They declared that they were able, in very clear weather,
to see land in the east (Bering Island), and that in
the year 1715 a man had stranded there, who said that
his native land was far to the east and had large rivers
and forests with very high trees. All this led Bering
to believe that a large country lay toward the northeast
at no very great distance.
In the summer of 1729, he started out to find this
country, leaving the mouth of the Kamchatka for
the east, July 6. If the wind had been favorable, he
would very soon have reached Bering Island, where
twelve years later he was buried. He must have been
very near this island, invisible to him, however, on
account of a fog; but on the 8th of July he was struck
by a severe storm, which the frail vessel and the
weatherworn rigging could not defy, and hence on the 9th,
he headed for the southern point of Kamchatka. But
also on this voyage he did geographical service by
determining the location of the peninsula and the
northern Kurile Islands, as well as exploring the
channel between them, and thus finding for the Russian
mariner a new and easier route to Kamchatka. Berch
says, that although Bering had adverse winds on the
voyage to Bolsheretsk, all his computations are quite
accurate; the difference in latitude between the
latter place and lower Kamchatka Ostrog is given as 6° 29′,
which is very nearly correct. Bering likewise
determined the location of Cape Lopatka at 51° N. lat.
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