Description of Kamchatka
Amendments to the history of the inhabitants of Kamchatka
Description of the hunting of various animals
List of insects
and
Second Kamchatka Expedition
undertaken upon His Imperial Majesty’s Command
or
Description of the Voyage of the late Captain Commander Bering
for
The Exploration of Lands North-east of Kamchatka
and of
The Island on which we chanced to land
and on which we wintered in 1742,
what happened to us,
and
the plants, animals, and minerals found there
By
Georg Wilhelm Steller
Adjunct in Natural History of the St Petersburg
Academy of Sciences
1743
All that is left of Steller are his papers and his plants.
The great Linnaeus himself acquires the saplings that Steller left in Siberia, and it is in his garden that they now blossom.
II
Yet, if we wield the sword of extermination as we advance, we have no reason to repine at the havoc committed […] We have only to reflect, that in thus obtaining possession of the earth by conquest, and defending our acquisitions by force, we exercise no exclusive prerogative. Every species which has spread itself from a small point over a wide area must, in like manner, have marked its progress by the diminution or the entire extirpation of some other, and must maintain its ground by a successful struggle against the encroachments of other plants and animals. […] The most insignificant and diminutive species, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, have each slaughtered their thousands, as they disseminated themselves over the globe, as well as the lion, when first it spread itself over the tropical regions of Africa.
Sir Charles Lyell,Principles of Geology, 1833
And in every corner of the earth where civilisation has forced its way, the champagne began to flow.
Uno Cygnaeus, in a letter from Sitka, 1840
57°03’11”N, 135°19’51”W
