The people of this part of the coast call themselves Tsau-chú, which is their tribal name. The similar name of another branch living near the Anadyr River has been corrupted into the word Chuk-chi, by the Russians, from which we derive our general name for these people. Lauridsen says "Breden var 64° 41'" which in the American edition stands, "the longitude (sic) was 64° 41'." But the original and all the variants of Bering's own report make the latitude 64° 30' which is correct. If it had been 64° 41' they would have been north of their own position for Transfiguration Bay, from which their course had been S.S.E., therefore the 41' is certainly erroneous.
On Bering's chart he refers to the point of the coast where the shore changes its direction under the name Chukotskago Noss, which means the promontory of the Chukchi, though this is not the same as the Chukchi Cape of the Anadyr Cossacks, who so denominated the eastern extreme of Asia, which they knew from report and by the voyage of Deshneff. There can be no reasonable doubt that Bering named his cape after the people who had described it to him, although the imperfections of the record leave this to be inferred. Bering's map gives the latitude of the south extreme of the cape as about 64° 02', and it is erroneously represented as extending south of the latitude of the northwest end of St. Lawrence Island. Its real latitude is about fifteen miles further north. Cook made it 64° 13'. Chaplin's journal (according to Lauridsen) makes it 64° 18', which would agree with the latest surveys very nearly, though the coincidence must be regarded as a happy accident in view of their imperfect tables, instruments and methods. Bering's report places its eastern extreme in 64° 25' and (wrongly) in the same longitude as the west end of St. Lawrence Island.
Aug. 10/21. St. Lawrence's day. The island referred to by the Chukchi was seen and the vessel stood toward it, about two o'clock in the afternoon. Twice, an officer with a four-oared boat was sent to reconnoiter the coast more closely, but he saw only what appeared to be huts without inhabitants (C). The island (of which only the northwest hilly portion was seen, owing to the hazy weather) was named after the patron saint of the day and the course of the vessel was changed to the northward.
Aug. 11/22. At noon the latitude was estimated at 64° 20', and at sunset an attempt was made by the determination of the magnetic variation to get the longitude (L.).
Notes.—An illustration of the want of care with which Lauridsen has weighed his comments, it may be pointed out that he claims (p. 32, Am. Ed.) that on reaching latitude 64° 20' the Gabriel was in Bering Strait, while two pages later, on her return southward, he declares her to have got out of the strait on reaching latitude 64° 27'! As a matter of fact, at the present day, the whalers and traders of this region consider that Cape Chaplin (more commonly known as Indian Point) forms the southwest point of entrance to the strait; and this point is situated in latitude 64° 25' and E. longitude 187° 40', as determined by the writer in 1880. This is perhaps the point referred to by Bering as the eastern point of his Chukotskoi Cape.
The magnetic method of determining the longitude would give correct results only accidentally, as previously explained. The result announced by Lauridsen for the present occasion is 25° 31' east from Lower Kamchatka Ostrog or 187° 51' east from Greenwich, which would be within a few miles of the latest determinations. But it is obvious from Bering's map that he could not have made his position less than 28° 45' east from Lower Kamchatka, and the position above given is perhaps an interpolation from modern sources, which has been misunderstood or mistranslated. As Lauridsen has paraphrased, not quoted, it is impossible in the absence of Bergh's original to determine who is responsible for the incongruity. An interpolation seems the more likely since Bering himself gives the longitude as 189° 55' E. Gr.11
[11 A glance at Bergh shows that this statement of Lauridsen is simply a blunder. Bergh only says they obtained the magnetic variation (25° 31' easterly) by an amplitude observation! Longitude is not mentioned, nor Kamchatka.]
Aug. 12/23. From noon of the 11th to noon of this day, the Gabriel sailed sixty-nine miles, but the difference of latitude was only 21 miles. The wind was light to fresh and the weather overcast (L.).
Notes.—If the above statement be taken literally with the assumption that they were at noon of the 11th in latitude 64° 20' and E. longitude 188° from Greenwich, it would give their position for noon of the 12th as 64° 49' and longitude 190° 45' E. Gr., which does not at all accord with the subsequently narrated course, etc. If we proceed on the hypothesis that it means that the log recorded 69 miles and that only 29 miles were made good (which might easily happen if the polar current were running strong on the west side of the strait) and that their course was parallel with the Siberian shore in a general way they would have been, at noon of August 12th, in latitude 64° 49' and longitude 188° E. Gr. or thereabouts, which agrees very fairly with the known circumstances.
Aug. 13/24. A fresh breeze and cloudy weather. The Gabriel sailed the whole day with no land in sight and the difference in latitude was only 78 miles at noon, reckoned from noon of the 12th. The wind diminished toward night.