"A succinct narrative of Captain Beerings's Travels into Siberia:"
with a reduction of the above-mentioned map, on which there is no trace of the island of St. Demetrius, even its name, which alone appears on the Du Halde map, is here omitted. Otherwise this version of the map does not differ from Du Halde's, more than one copy of a drawing usually differs from another. When Bering started on his expedition he was accompanied by two cartographers (Bergh, First Voy. of the Russ. pp. 2-5, fide Lauridsen) Luzhin and Potiloff, and to one or both of them under Bering's direction the construction of the map in question was probably due.
When Bering made his report it was accompanied by a list of positions for important places visited by the Expedition.
Dr. Campbell, while gathering material for his second edition of Harris' Voyages, procured a copy of this unpublished list of positions and prints it in his account of Bering's travels, with the comment that it was sent by Bering from Kamchatka, before his return to Russia, and to the Senate at St. Petersburg, to which Bering did not report. Whether due to the transcriber or the printer there are several very obvious errors in the list as printed by Campbell, and when it is compared with Bering's own list we see that there are also several interpolations.
But the positions adopted in the chart, said by Du Halde to have been brought to St. Petersburg by Bering on his return (a statement confirmed by the mention of a chart in the report itself), are not identical with the positions enumerated in the list. This leads to the suspicion that Bering's first chart was not published, and that the chart issued was due to a recomputation and revision of his data. This suspicion is made stronger by the statement of Lauridsen, who gives no authority, however, that Bering's chart was made in Moscow in 1731,4 though this may merely mean that some of the copies which were distributed to various personages were so prepared.
[4 Lauridsen, Am. ed., p. 57.]
These manuscript copies of the chart and report were sent to various foreign courts, as a matter of general interest, by the Russian authorities. The copy used by Du Halde was communicated to him by the King of Poland who had received it as a "Present worthy of his regard and curiosity" (Du Halde, iv, p. 439, Brookes' ed.). Other copies were sent to Sweden and probably to England and other countries. In the journal, "Ymer," of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1884, p. 93) is a short notice by E. Dahlgren of three manuscript copies of Bering's chart of his first expedition, or rather of charts embodying its results. Two of these charts are in the Royal archives of Sweden and measures 58 x 135 cm. One of them is ornamented with ten colored drawings of natives of Siberia. The other is without these but does not seem to be a copy of the first as it has a number of soundings between St. Lawrence and the Diomede Islands which are not on the former, and some names which are peculiar to it. Both have many more names than are given on the chart published by Du Halde. Both of the manuscripts have a legend referring to the coast from the Kolyma eastward, on the north coast of Siberia, to the effect that it is put down from older charts and information, doubtless furnished by the archives at Yakutsk. The third copy is in the possession of Baron Robert Klinckofström, of Stafsund, Sweden.
Through the kind offices of Baron Nordenskiöld and the generosity of Baron Klinckofström, the last mentioned chart has been forwarded to the writer through the Smithsonian Institution for examination. It appears to be essentially the same as the second of the two charts referred to as comprised in the Royal Swedish Archives. The result of my examination of it leads me to the belief that there were two different charts sent out in manuscript by the Russian authorities. The first, which I regard as the earlier, and which is certainly more accurate, shows the island of St. Demetrius in its proper place in accordance with Bering's Report and list of positions. It formed the basis of Campbell's engraving which will be referred to later, and of the chart which appears in the various editions of Du Halde. It is possible that this represents the original chart prepared by Bering in Kamchatka during the winter of 1728-9. The second and probably later form of the chart is represented by the Klinckofström chart, upon which the name and island of St. Demetrius have vanished and a smaller island in the corresponding latitude is represented close to the Siberian coast and westward from the meridian passing through the eastern extreme of East Cape. This island is named the island of St. Diomede. If it is intended as a revised position for the island of St. Demetrius of the other chart and of Bering's Report, it is in conflict with the facts and with the position assigned to St. Demetrius in the report. No one who had sailed between St. Demetrius and East Cape could have sanctioned such a position for the island with honesty. If a different island is intended the question arises, Why is St. Demetrius omitted? This second chart is obviously the basis upon which in D'Anville's chart of Asia (1753) the configuration of the eastern extreme of Siberia is based, and I suspect that the chart of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg and the reproduction of Jefferys, were also derived from it as far as this region is concerned.
It would be rash, in the absence of authentic information which only the Russian archives can supply, to hazard an opinion as to the origin of the important difference between these charts. I may return to this point later. Apart from this, it may be added that the northern coast of Siberia from East Cape west to Cape Shelagskoi is represented as mountainous throughout its extent. A legend states that it is laid down from older charts and information. This relieves Bering from the responsibility for the fictitious or at least grossly erroneous and exaggerated form and direction given to Cape Shelagskoi on his chart. The west coast of the Okhotsk sea and part of its northeastern shores not visited by Bering are stated to be laid down from "information." This map is not dated and the blank space in the title left for Bering's autograph has never been filled. No name of draughtsman or place or authority of issue are indicated upon it. It measures 51 by 201/8 inches between the neat-lines. It is in black and white, the mountains washed in, the only color being small green trees as a conventional sign for wooded country. A copy of the earlier chart fell into the hands of Dr. Campbell and was published by him in his edition of Harris' Voyages,5 together with a version of the report which is more or less mutilated and to which the editor to make his book more readable has added certain flowers of rhetoric which detract from its accuracy. Campbell's copy of the map is the most perfect yet published and the only one showing the island of St. Demetrius in its proper place.
[5 HARRIS, JOHN. Complete collection of Voyages and travels [etc.]. London, T. Woodward [and others] 1748. 2 v. folio, maps and plates, Vol. 2, pp. 1016-1041, is devoted to a discussion of Bering's discoveries, entitled: Book III, Section VIII. "A distinct account of part of the northeast frontier of the Russian Empire, commonly called the country of Kamschatka or Kamschatska including the voyages of Captain Behring for discovering toward the East [etc.], collected from the best authorities both printed and manuscript.">[