future investigations are to be undertaken. As for the observations not yet carried out, you will carry those out as a supplement so that everything concerning natural and political history on Kamchatka shall have been described completely. You will write a general description of the land’s topography—namely, its mountains, grasslands, bogs, and forests as well as rocky, clayey, muddy, and sandy places, and the geologic structures. In this respect you should pay special attention to the location and inclination of the strata, which can be best observed in the mountains. Further, [you should describe the following:] the rivers and streams—where they originate and where they flow to; the season, time, and reasons for their maximum and minimum flows; the springs and lakes and their location; possible differences in size between the trees and plants growing there and those growing in Siberia, Russia, and other countries; and where in comparison to other regions the ground is elevated and the tallest mountains are located, for which barometric observations have to be made. You should also include a detailed description of the volcanoes and of the radical upheavals [earthquakes] occurring from time to time in the country—for example, that there used to be mountains, lakes, and bays where none now exist—and the creation of new mountains, lakes, and bays, as well as plague epidemics among the people, epidemics among the animals, and more.
38. To assure the best possible execution of the tasks you are asked to carry out on the journey from Yakutsk to Okhotsk, in Okhotsk, and on Kamchatka, you are provided an exact copy of the instructions we gave the student Krasheninnikov. In them all the duties relating to the natural and political history are laid out in detail. They also contain everything we have been told about those lands and particularly what is yet to be investigated. Also included is a geographical and political description of Kamchatka and the surrounding areas that you should scrutinize while on Kamchatka and, if necessary, correct and supplement.
39. Suitable help for your investigations is also provided by exact copies of questions concerning the natural and political history sent to the student Krasheninnikov at various times, as well as lists of animals, birds, fish, trees, and plants with their Russian names [see document 26, Quellen 3:94-95]. With this help you will be able to ask questions about all kinds of things. You will specifically order the painter to make drawings of whatever relates to the various native peoples’ way of life and their faith based on idolatry.
40. When you have carried out everything you were ordered to do on Kamchatka, you will return to Okhotsk with your party. If you and the student Krasheninnikov had not been able to complete your investigations in Okhotsk earlier for lack of time, you will carry those out after you return. Then you will travel back to Yakutsk, where, according to our suggestion, you will receive a decision made by the High Governing Senate or the Academy of Sciences about the route you are to travel on the way back from there to St. Petersburg.
41. Before you depart from Kamchatka or Okhotsk, you will return the assay master Gardebol to the command from which he came since we have no information whatsoever where he has been ordered to go after completing his assignments under our supervision.
42. So that we may always be informed about your investigations, you will send us regular reports about your observations and investigations every three months during your entire journey, and once a year while on Kamchatka. With those reports you will include catalogs of plants and trees, animals, birds, fish, and insects you found, as well as of all the ores and minerals. You will, in particular, send extensive descriptions and drawings of things never described before as well as historical reports you collect about the native peoples and geographical descriptions of all the places you visit. In all your investigations, you will distinguish between what you have seen with your own eyes and what you gathered from what others told you.
43. Additionally, you will endeavor to preserve in any way possible one or two specimens of the unknown plants, animals, birds, fish, insects, crabs, and shellfish, and to collect samples of all the noteworthy ores and minerals. You will put together skeletons of the large animals, making sure to have the fat removed. You will send these things to be preserved in Her Imperial Majesty’s Kunstkammer, together with your reports to us. Furthermore, with respect to the unknown plants and trees, you will very carefully gather their ripe seeds and roots dug up at a suitable time; you will ship them at the first opportunity. You will personally bring the roots and seeds you gather during your last year on Kamchatka with you to Okhotsk and send them off as quickly as possible to St. Petersburg so that attempts at propagating them can be undertaken.
44. Along with the abovementioned reports on your observations, you will also report on all the circumstances of the progress of your journey and on your priorities, where and when and coming from where you intend to spend some time, and when and where you are encountering the biggest obstacles, possibly causing interruptions in your investigations. You must therefore keep a daily journal in which to record everything that happens during your travels. When you correspond with government offices or other parties about your journey or investigations, you will diligently collect and save all letters, including those you receive, and order that they be bound into a book. With respect to things needed, you will send us copies of that correspondence.
45. In ukases of Her Imperial Majesty sent at various times during 1733 from the High Governing Senate to the Academy of Sciences, it was ordered that the students of the Slavic-Latin School attached to our retinue were to receive instruction and their pay through us, and we were to see to it that they would always have enough clothes and food, that they would not spend money foolishly, and that they would spend their time in a meaningful way. Therefore, you will definitely act in accordance with these ukases.
46. During the entire journey there and back, you will enter all the progon money and all the Crown moneys you spend into a Schnurbuch ledger, which you will request of the Irkutsk Provincial Administration. You will have receipts for those expenses entered into that ledger, and you will also enter the expenses from your personal funds you use to purchase materials for your investigations.
47. When you send off your reports, it is permissible to accept letters from all persons with you and others belonging to the Kamchatka Expedition and send them by mail free of charge. However, in their envelopes you must not include private mail from foreign merchants or people of other ranks or include anything in packages since that has been prohibited under threat of legal prosecution by ukase of the Governing Senate.
48. If secrecy is to be maintained about some of the Crown things, you must absolutely not write about them to anybody in your private letters, and you can write in official reports only to those who have sent you on your way. But if anyone should hinder you in any way, you are free to write to whomever you wish. Name the matter you have been tasked with and who or what is responsible for this hindrance. You are equally at liberty to write to someone you trust, if an irregularity subject to secrecy occurs and it is impossible to voice a suspicion in reports to the offices or persons that have given you your assignments. However, you must—under threat of penalty through Crown ukases—not write about your actual assignments.
49. Furthermore, the Irkutsk Provincial Administration was thoroughly informed in a memorandum about every aspect of the assignments we gave you; a copy of it is attached. To keep him informed, we also wrote Captain Commander Bering in Okhotsk about them.
50. In support of your investigations, you are now provided with some books and Crown materials listed in the following catalog; according to instruction 24 above, you may add to these books and Crown materials whatever you deem necessary from those located in Yakutsk.
Catalog
Caspari Bauhini Pinax [Caspar Bauhin’s Catalog of Plants]
Tournefortii Institutiones Rei Herbariae cum Corollaria Institutionum Rei Herbariae in II Volumine [Tournefort’s Elements of Botany with an Addendum (to the 2nd vol. after his travels in Armenia), in two volumes]
Thomae Willis opera omnia [Complete Works of Thomas Willis]
Ioannis Raii Methodus emendata et aucta editus 1710 [John Ray’s Methodically Arranged Plant Survey, improved and enlarged edition, 1710]
Eiusdem De variis plantarum methodis dissertatio [Ray’s Catalog of Different Plant Taxa]
Eiusdem Stirpium