curvy.
At last one day, in a high-running sea, the ship struck upon a rock
and they found themselves stranded on an unknown island off the coast
of Kamtchatka. Only two men were fit to land; they found a dead whale
on which they fed their sick. Later on sea-otters, blue and white foxes,
and sea-cows provided food, but the island was desolate and
solitary--not a human being was to be seen.

[Illustration: THE CHART OF BEHRING'S VOYAGE FROM KAMTCHATKA TO NORTH
AMERICA. From a chart drawn in 1741 by Lieut. Waxell, a member of
Behring's expedition. It is also interesting for the drawing of the
sea-cow, one of the very few authentic drawings of this curious animal,
which has long been extinct, and is only known by these drawings.]

Here, however, the little party was forced to winter. With difficulty
they built five underground huts on the sandy shore of the island now
known as Behring Island. And each day amid the raging snowstorms and
piercing winds one man went forth to hunt for animal food.

Man after man died, and by December, Behring's own condition had become
hopeless. Hunger and grief had added to his misery, and in his sand-hut
he died. He was almost buried alive, for the sand rolled down from
the pit in which he lay and covered his feet. He would not have it
removed, for it kept him warm. Thirty more of the little expedition
died during that bitter winter on the island; the survivors, some
forty-five persons, built a ship from the timbers of the wreck, and
in August 1742 they returned to Kamtchatka to tell the story of
Behring's discoveries and of Behring's death.

CHAPTER XLV

COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND

But while the names of Torres, Carpenter, Tasman, and Dampier are still
to be found on our modern maps of Australia, it is the name of Captain
Cook that we must always connect most closely with the discovery of
the great island continent--the Great South Land which only became
known to Europe one hundred and fifty years ago.

Dampier had returned to England in 1701 from his voyage to New Holland,
but nearly seventy years passed before the English were prepared to
send another expedition to investigate further the mysterious land
in the south.

James Cook had shown himself worthy of the great command that was given
to him in 1768, although exploration was not the main object of the
expedition. Spending his boyhood in the neighbourhood of Whitby, he
was familiar with the North Sea fishermen, with t