very and the first wintering there, which has a quite
special interest from the island having never before been trodden by
the foot of man. The abundant animal life, then found there, gives
us therefore one of the exceedingly few representations we possess
of the animal world as it was before man, the lord of the creation,
appeared.

After Behring's vessel had drifted about a considerable time at
random in the Behring Sea, in consequence of the severe
scurvy-epidemic, which had spread to nearly all the men on board,
without any dead reckoning being kept, and finally without sail or
helmsman, literally at the mercy of wind and waves, those on board
on the 15th/4th November, 1741, sighted land, off whose coast the
vessel was anchored the following day at 5 o'clock P.M. An hour
after the cable gave way, and an enormous sea threw the vessel
towards the shore-cliffs. All appeared to be already lost. But the
vessel, instead of being driven ashore by new waves, came
unexpectedly into a basin 4-1/2 fathoms deep surrounded by rocks and
with quite still water, being connected with the sea only by a
single narrow opening. If the unmanageable vessel had not drifted
just to that place it would certainly have gone to pieces, and all
on board would have perished.

[Illustration: NATIVES OF BEHRING ISLAND. (After a photograph.) ]

It was only with great difficulty that the sick crew could put out a
boat in which Lieut. Waxel and Steller landed. They found the land
uninhabited, devoid of wood, and uninviting. But a rivulet with
fresh clear water purled yet unfrozen down the mountain sides, and
in the sand hills along the coast were found some deep pits, which
when enlarged and covered with sails could be used as dwellings. The
men who could still stand on their legs all joined in this work. On
the 19th/8th November the sick could be removed to land, but, as
often happens, many died when they were brought out of the cabin
into the fresh air, others while they were being carried from the
vessel or immediately after they came to land. All in whom the
scurvy had taken the upper hand to that extent that they were
already lying in bed on board the vessel, died. The survivors had
scarcely time or strength to bury the dead, and found it difficult
to protect the corpses from the hungry foxes that swarmed on the
island and had not yet learned to be afraid of man. On the 20th/9th
Behring was carried on land; he was already much reduced and
de