Eastbound through Siberia

Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German scientist who lived from 1709 to 1746, and worked as a botanist, zoologist, and physician. He was part of the second crew for the Great Northern Expedition. Margritt A. Engel is Professor Emerita of Languages at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is translator of Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741–1742 and Steller's History of Kamchatka. Karen E. Willmore is Professor Emerita of Languages at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is translator of Steller's History of Kamchatka. Jonathan C. Slaght is the Russia and Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is editor and translator (with Vladimir K. Arsenyev) of Across the Ussuri Kray: Travels in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains.

Contents


Foreword: The Steller Legacy / Jonathan C. Slaght


Translators' Preface


Acknowledgments


Introduction


Instructions for Georg Wilhelm Steller from February 18, 1739, from Yeniseysk / Johann Georg Gmelin and Gerhard Friedrich Müller





Part I: Description of Irkutsk and Its Surroundings


1. About Irkutsk and Its Surroundings


2. About Irkutsk Itself


3. About the Public Offices


4. About the Clergy


5. About the Chinese Trade and Chinese Trade Goods


6. About Customs and Lifestyle in Irkutsk


7. About Transbaikalia


8. Report from the Uda River





Part II: Travel Journal from Irkutsk to Kamchatka


9. From Irkutsk to Ust'Ilginskaya (3/4-13)


10. From Ust'Ilginskaya to Kirensk (3/14-5/1)


11. From Kirensk to Yakutsk (5/2-24)


12. In Yakutsk and Yarmanka (5/25-6/19)


13. From Yarmanka to the Amga River (6/20-7/2)


14. From the Amga to the Yuna River (7/3-21)


15. From the Yuna River to Yudoma Cross (7/22-8/8)


16. From Yudoma Cross to Okhotsk (8/9-13)


17. In Okhotsk (8/14-26)


18. Salmon Fishing and Preserving (8/27)


19. From Okhotsk to Bol'sheretsk (8/28-9/16)





Afterword


Appendix A: Georg Wilhelm Steller's Life 11-20 – '18


Appendix B: Schnurbuch Account Ledger


Appendix C: Letter to Johann Daniel Schumacher


Appendix D: Plants Named After Steller


Glossary of Foreign Words


Glossary of People


Bibliography


Index