Bering's Voyages Whither And
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REVIEWS 87 place does the story of the death of Toni Kurz Dr. Fisher is Professor Emeritus of History on the Eiger have in a book about Canada’s at the University of California at Los Angeles, mountains?) author of TheRussian Fur Trade,1550-1770 The photographs are beautiful in this book (University of California Press, 1943), several and it will certainly be appreciated by anyone articles having to do with the settlement and who is interested in the mountains. It is a great exploration of Siberia and northwest America, book to pick up and leaf through, but it could and a guide to the records of the have been so much more. Russian-American Company heldin the Jon W. Jones National Archives of the United States. His years of study have resulted in a publication whichwill require rethinking of many BERING’S VOYAGES WHITHER AND previously held opinions about attitudes of the WHY; RAYMOND H. FISHER;Universiry of Russian government toward exploration and Washington Press; Seattle and London; 1978; 217 settlement on the North American continent. xii pp.. maps,appendices, bibliography, index; It is disappointing that the care which the $17.95. author devoted to his scholarship is not evidenced in the printing of Bering’s Voyages, On June 4, 1741, Captain Vitus Bering in St. for this reviewer’s copy, at least, was marred Peter and Captain Aleksei Chirikov in St. Paul by having pages 180,181, 184 and 185 blank. sailed east from the Kamchatka port of This destroys the usefulness of Appendix I Avatcha. The ships became separated, but by (Bering’s Account of His First Voyage) and the time Chirikov had returned to Kamchatka Appendix I1 (Kirilov’s Memorandum on the in St. Paul and the survivors of Bering’s crew Kamchatka Expedition), and it is hoped that had struggled back to Siberian shores, both in the publisher noted and corrected this flaw in the autumn of 1741, these oflicers of the other copies. Russian Navy and their crews had William S. Hanable accomplished what is traditionally accepted as Chief of the the European discovery of Alaska. Until State of Alaska’s publication of Professor Fisher’s Bering’s Ojice of History Voyages, the two-volume work of F. A. Golder and Archaeology. (Bering’s Voyages,An Account of the Efforts of the Russiansto Determine theRelation of Asia and America, American Geographical Society Research Series No. 1, New York, 1922, THE MOSSES OF ARCTIC ALASKA; reprint Octagon Books, New York, 1%8) has STEERE,W. C.; Bryophytomm Bibliotheca 14, J. been the most authoritative English language Cramer, Postjach 48, 3301 Lehre, West Germany; treatment of the purpose and conduct of the 1978; i-x, 508pp. (DM 150, - ). 1741 voyage. Until recently, the flora of theNorth Golder’s view, shared by many, was that the American arctic was very poorly known. Not 1741 sailing was undertaken to more only was there an imperfect knowledge of the definitively answer the question “are Asia and species that were present but, in particular, America joined?”, the basis for a 1728 Bering little was known of the distribution and expedition, and one which Golder felt had not ecology of these species. Furthermore, most been answered to the satisfaction of the publications are scattered in journal articles, Russian government. many of which are hard to find or have been Fisher’s Bering’sVoyages challenges that little publicized. Books by A. E. Porsild on the position by citing evidence that the separation Canadian Arctic Archipelago, I. L. Wiggins question had been answered by the 1648 and J. H. Thomas on the Alaskan Arctic Slope, voyage of Semen Dezhnev and then examining and the superb flora by E. Hulten on Alaska with thoroughness and detail whether or not and neighbouring Temtories have gone a long the results of Dezhnev’s investigations were way to bring together knowledge on the known to those chartering Bering’s vascular plants but until thepresent book, explorations; and then, in successive chapters, similar treatments have not appeared on the “The Intended Route and Destination”, “The algae, fungi, lichens and bryophytes. Evidence from the Voyage”, “Bering’s The author, William Campbell Steere, is one Proposals”, and“The Second Kamchatka of the best known and respected botanists in Expedition: Plans and Objectives”. A final the world as evidenced by the lengthy article chapter concludes that the purpose of Bering’s on his life and work that H. Crum published in 1728 voyage was to reconnoiter the coast of The Bryologist in 1977(80: 662-694). Steere North America and thatthe purpose of the devoted part of ten field seasons from 1951 to 1741 voyage was to establish Russian 1974 to the study of Alaskan arctic bryophytes sovereignty in northwest America. with research staged from the Arctic Research .