Note 79 — Chapter XVI · BERING'S PLACE OF LANDING ON THE AMERICAN COAST.—CAPTAIN COOK'S UNCERTAINTY.—THE QUESTION DISCUSSED AND DEFINITELY SETTLED.

Bancroft, History of Alaska, p. 79, presents the same view: "The identity of Kayak is established by comparing Bering's with Cook's observations, which would be enough even if the chart appended to Khitroff's journal had not been preserved. At first both Cook and Vancouver thought it Yakutat Bay, which they named after Bering, but both changed their minds. As late as 1787 the Russian Admiralty college declared that the island Chukli (Montague of Vancouver) was the point of Bering's discovery, but Admiral Sarycheff, who examined the journals of the expedition, pointed at once to Kayak Island as the only point to which the description of Bering and Steller could apply. Sarycheff made one mistake in applying the name of Cape St. Elias to the nearest point of the mainland called Cape Suckling by Cook."—Tr.