Page:The story of geographical discovery.djvu/130

 126 fleet under the Cossack Dishinef sailed from Kolyma and reached as far as the straits known by the name of Bering. It was not, however, till fifty years afterwards, in 1696, that the Russians reached Kamtschatka.

Notwithstanding the access of knowledge which had been gained by these successive bold pushes towards north and east, it still remained uncertain whether Siberia did not join on to the northern part of the New World discovered by Columbus and Amerigo, and in 1728 Peter the Great sent out an expedition under, a Dane in the Russian service, with the express aim of ascertainmg this point. He reached Kamtschatka, and there built two vessels as directed by the Czar, and started on his voyage northward, coasting along the land. When he reached a little beyond 67° N., he found no land to the north or east, and conceived he had reached the end of the continent. As a matter of fact, he was within thirty miles of the west coast of America; but of this he does not seem to have been aware, being content with solving the special problem put before him by the Czar. The strait thus discovered by Bering, though not known by him to be a strait, has ever since been known by his name. In 1741, however, Bering again set out on a voyage of discovery to ascertain how far to the east America was, and within a fortnight had come within sight of the lofty mountain named by him. Mount St. Elias. Bering himself died upon this voyage, on an island also named after him; he had at last solved the relation between the Old and the New Worlds.

These voyages of Bering, however, belong to a much later stage of discovery than those we