Certainly, in the history of the world, no
expedition had set out with greater prestige. Eight years had it {18}
taken to cross Siberia from St. Petersburg to the Pacific. A line of
forts across two continents had been built for winter quarters. Rivers
had been bridged; as many as forty boats knocked together in a single
year to raft down the Siberian torrents. Two hundred thousand dollars
in modern money had been spent before the Pacific was reached. In all,
nine ships had been built on the Pacific to freight supplies across
from Okhotsk to the eastern side of Kamchatka, two to carry Bering to
the new continent of "Gamaland" which the savants persisted in putting
on the maps, three to explore the region between Russia and Japan.
Now, Bering knew there was _no_ "Gamaland" except in the ignorant,
heady imaginings of the foolish geographers. So did Alexei Chirikoff,
the Russian second assistant. So did Spanberg, the Dane, third in
command, who had coasted the Pacific in charting Japan.
Roughly speaking, the expedition had gradually focussed to three
points: (1) the charting of the Arctic coast; (2) the exploration of
Japan; (3) the finding of what lay between Asia and America.
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