This should read, errors and misplacements corrected:
| N. Lat. | Long. E. Tobolsk. | |
| Nizhni Kamschatsk Ostrog | 56° 11', | 95° 30' |
| The mouth of the River (Kamchatka) | 56° 03', | 96° 10' |
| The Cape of the Apostle Thaddens | 62° 20', | 111° 32' |
| The western cape (or spit) of Svietoi Krest Bay | 65° 35', | 115° 15' |
The words in parentheses are added by the writer for clearness. It is somewhat surprising that in using this table nobody seems to have recognized these errors.]
Bering's table in his report and Bering's chart as printed by D'Anville differ from each other fifteen miles in latitude and two degrees and twenty-five minutes or nearly seventy-five miles in longitude. The chart is the more correct, but it differs more than thirty miles in latitude and nearly a degree in longitude from the modern observations of Lütké and Rodgers for the same locality. After leaving Holy Cross Bay, the voyage was continued to the southeast along the "high and rocky coast" of which Lauridsen (probably paraphrasing Bergh) says that "every indentation was very carefully explored." This is obviously a flight of fancy, since a good part of this coast is low and sandy, while there is no indication of two excellent harbors which it affords, on any of the charts of Bering or his successors in that century.
Aug. 6/17, 1728. This day, the festival of the Transfiguration, found the Gabriel entering a small bay, which on that account was named Transfiguration (Preobrazhenia) Bay. Here they anchored (L.). Lieutenant Chaplin was sent ashore for water and found native huts but no people.
Notes.—This bay has never been surveyed, and on the best modern charts is merely indicated, while on many others it is omitted altogether or the name transferred to the anchorage north of Cape Bering or to Plover Bay. Bering's position for the spit at the entrance of Transfiguration Bay is two degrees and a quarter too far east and sixteen miles too far north by the table, but his chart gives the position much more closely, with a difference from Rodgers' chart of not exceeding five miles.
Aug. 7/18. They proceeded along the coast in a south-southeasterly direction.
Note.—The total eclipse of the moon of this date could hardly have been observed by Bering, since the moon must have been close to the horizon and first contact of the shadow occurred only about five minutes before the moon set. As Bering does not mention it, it is not likely that he noted the eclipse.
Aug. 8/19. At seven in the morning a skin-boat (umiak or bidarrá) was observed to be launched from the shore, eight men getting into it and rowing toward the vessel (B.). They approached within hail, and were understood, through the aid of the Kariak interpreters on board the Gabriel, to enquire whence the vessel came and what was the object of the expedition in entering these waters. After much persuasion one of the natives left the skin-boat and swam, sustaining himself on two inflated seal-skins tied by a pole, to the Gabriel and came on board and the others, seeing that no harm befel him, came nearer the vessel shortly afterward (M. B. C.). The interpreters had some difficulty in understanding all the natives said, but it was gathered from their conversation that these people called themselves Chukchi (or by an analogous name); that they were acquainted with the Russians, by report or otherwise, that there were numerous settlements of their people along this shore; that the Anadyr River lay far to the west (L.); that to the south and east lay an island which would soon be visible to the people on the Gabriel if they continued on the course they were then steering; that in the vicinity of this island the shore of the mainland changes its direction and extends beyond to the north and then to the westward (B. M. C. H.). The man who had boarded the vessel was given some presents and sent back to the native boat, in the hope that he would persuade his comrades to come on board the Gabriel, but, suspecting some evil design, the natives pulled away toward the shore and disappeared. According to Bergh, Chaplin's journal expresses regret that more important information could not be obtained owing to the difficulty in interpreting what was said by the Chukchi. At noon the latitude was estimated to be 64° 30'. In the afternoon the cape mentioned by the Chukchis was seen.
Notes.—The account given in Bering's report, and variously rendered by Müller, Brooks, D'Anville and Campbell, differs in several details from that given in Chaplin's journal and described by Bergh and Lauridsen. The various English versions of both fail in clearly rendering the important point gained by this interview with the natives, which was, that, at a short distance, the main coast changes its direction and turns to the north and west. These Chukchis pointed the way to the strait for the party on the Gabriel, and their account proved to be accurate in every particular.