nd miles
through one of the most desolate regions of the earth. As to the food
on which the explorers lived: "Fish oil was their butter and dried
fish their beef and pork. Salt they were obliged to get from the sea."
Thus supplied with a year's provisions, Behring started on his voyage
of discovery along an unknown coast and over an unknown sea. On 13th
July 1728 the sails of the _Gabriel_ were triumphantly hoisted, and
Behring, with a crew of forty-four, started on the great voyage. His
course lay close along the coast northwards. The sea was alive with
whales, seals, sea-lions, and dolphins as the little party made their
way north, past the mouth of the Anadir River. The little _Gabriel_
was now in the strait between Asia and America, though Behring knew
it not. They had been at sea some three weeks, when eight men came
rowing towards them in a leathern boat. They were the Chukches--a
warlike race living on the north-east coast of Siberia, unsubdued and
fierce. They pointed out a small island in the north, which Behring
named the Isle of St. Lawrence in honour of the day. Then he turned
back. He felt he had accomplished his task and obeyed his orders.
Moreover, with adverse winds they might never return to Kamtchatka,
and to winter among the Chukches was to court disaster. After a cruise
of three months they reached their starting-point again. Had he only
known that the coast of America was but thirty-nine miles off, the
results of his voyage would have been greater. As it was, he ascertained
that "there really does exist a north-east passage, and that from the
Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by Polar ice,
to sail to Kamtchatka and thence to Japan, China, and the East Indies."

The final discovery was left for Captain Cook. As he approached the
straits which he called after Behring, the sun broke suddenly through
the clouds, and the continents of Asia and America were visible at
a glance.

There was dissatisfaction in Russia with the result of Behring's
voyage, and though five years of untold hardship in the "extremest
corner of the world" had told on the Russian explorer, he was willing
and anxious to start off again. He proposed to make Kamtchatka again
his headquarters, to explore the western coast of America, and to chart
the long Arctic coast of Siberia--a colossal task indeed.

So the Great Northern Expedition was formed, with Behring in command,
accompanied by two well-known explorer