y were only one week from Kamchatka; but
they were terrified at the prospect of any more deep-sea wanderings,
and when one of the officers dared to support Bering's view, they fell
on him like wild beasts and threw him from the cabin. To a man they
voted to land. That vote was fate's seal to the penalty men must pay
for their mistakes.

Above the white fret of reefs precipices towered in pinnacles two
thousand feet high. Through the reefs the doomed ship stole like a
hunted thing. Only one man kept his head clear and his hand to the
helm--the lieutenant whom all the rest had thrown out of the cabin.
The island seemed absolutely treeless, covered only with sedge and
shingle and grass. The tide began to toss the ship about so that the
sick were rolled from their berths. Night came with a ghostly
moonlight silvering the fret of a seething sea that seemed to be {27}
reaching up white arms for its puny victims. The lieutenant threw out
an anchor. It raked bottom and the cable snapped. The crazed crew
began throwing the dead overboard as an offering to appease the anger
of the sea. The _St Peter_ swept stern foremost full on a reef.
Quickly the lieutenant and Steller threw out the last anchor. It
gripped between rocks and--held. The tide at midnight had thrown the
vessel into a sheltered cove. Steller and the lieutenant at once rowed
ashore to examine their surroundings and to take steps to make
provision for the morrow. They were on what is now known as Bering
Island. Fortunately, it was literally swarming with animal life--the
great manatee or sea-cow in herds on the kelp-beds, blue foxes in
thousands, the seal rookeries that were to make the islands famous; but
there was no timber to build houses for wintering in. It was a barren
island. They could make floors of sand, walls of peat, roofs of
sea-moss; but what shelter was this against northern gales?

By November 8 a rude pit-shelter had been constructed to house the
invalided crew; but the sudden transition from the putrid hold to the
open, frosty air caused the death of many as they were lowered on
stretchers. Amid a {28} heavy snow Bering was wrapped in furs and
carried ashore. The dauntless Steller faced the situation with
judgment and courage. He acted as doctor, nurse, and hunter, and daily
brought in meat for the hungry and furs to cover the dying. Five pits
sheltered the castaways. When examined in 1885 the walls of the pits
were still inta