The first project for making discoveries in the ocean east of Kamchatka was formed by Peter the Great.

Danish, German, and English navigators and _savans_ were sent to the eastern coast of Asia to conduct explorations in the desired quarter, but very little was accomplished in the lifetime of the great czar.

His successors carried out his plans.
In June, 1741, Vitus Bering, the first navigator of the straits which bear his name, sailed from Avatcha Bay.

Passing south of the islands of the Aleutian chain, Bering steered to the eastward, and at length discovered the American continent.

"On the 16th of July," says Steller, the naturalist and historian of the expedition, "we saw a mountain whose height was so great as to be visible at the distance of sixteen Dutch miles.