BERING ISLAND, SEA AND STRAIT. These are named after the explorer Vitus Bering. The island (also called Avatcha), which was the scene of his death, lies in the south western part of the sea, off the coast of Kamchatka, being one of the Commander or Komandor group, belonging to Siberia. It is 69m. long and 28m. in extreme breadth, the area is 615 sq. miles. The extreme elevation is about 30o feet. The smaller Copper island lies near. The islands are treeless; the population is about 65o. Bering sea continues the Pacific ocean northwards and is demarcated from it by the Aleutian islands. It is bounded on the east by Alaska, and on the west by the Siberian and Kamchatkan coast. Its area is about 886,000 sq. miles. In the north and east it has numerous islands (St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nuni vak and the Pribiloff group) and is shallow; in the south-west it reaches depths of 2,15o fathoms at least. The seal-fisheries are important (see BERING SEA ARBITRATION). The sea connects with the Arctic Ocean by Bering strait, at the narrowest part of which East cape (Deshnev) in Asia approaches within about 56m. of Cape Prince of Wales on the American shore, and is here 24 fathoms deep. North and south of these points the coasts on both sides rapidly diverge. The strait contains two small islands known as the Diomede islands. These granite domes, lacking a harbour, lie over a mile apart, and the boundary line between the posses sions of Russia and the United States passes between them. They are occupied by about 8o Eskimos, who from early times have been middlemen between Asia and America. They call the western island Nunarbook and the eastern Ignalook.
The climate is severe. From November to May the tempera ture of the air is below 32° and in summer it hardly surpasses in winter indeed it is sometimes well below zero. The ice found in this sea is usually of local origin and not derived from the Polar basin; it develops mostly on the coasts and in shallow waters. The ice limit usually runs from the Eastern Aleutian Islands past St. Paul northward to latitude 6o° N., thence fol lowing the coast of Kamchatka southward. As a result of this the areas of the greatest depths remain ice-free. In July, August and September the ice limit usually retreats north of the Bering Strait, because south winds drive a strong current with rather warmer water from the Pacific northwards. This current was much used by the whale fishers of the 19th century and is also taken advantage of by Polar expeditions, in order to reach the north coast of North America.
Isai Ignatiev went east from the Kolyma river in 1646, and Simon Dezhnev in 1648 followed his route and prolonged it, rounding the East or Dezhnev cape, and entering the strait. The post of Anadyrsk was founded on the river Anadyr, and an over land way gradually opened up. A Russian named Popov first learnt a rumour of the existence of islands east of Cape Dezhnev, and of the proximity of America, and presently there followed the explorations of Vitus Bering. In 1731 the navigator Michael Gvosdev was driven by storm and followed the Alaskan coast for two days. Under Bering on his last voyage (1741) was Com mander Chirikov of the "St. Paul" who explored the Alaskan coast. Lieutenant Waxel and William Steller, a naturalist, left at the head of Bering's party after his death, founded the impor tant fur trade of these waters. Michael Novidiskov (1745) and his successors continued it. Captain James Cook, working from the south, explored the sea and strait in 1778.