Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Bering (now preferred to the form Behring), Vitus,

Danish navigator; born at Horsen, in Jutland, in 1680. In his youth he made several voyages to the East and West Indies; entered the Russian navy, and served with distinction against the Swedes; and in 1725 commanded a scientific expedition to the Sea of Kamtchatka. He ascertained that Asia and America were separated by water — a strait which now bears his name. This problem Peter the Great had been very desirous of having solved. Bering was appointed captain commandant in 1732, and in 1741 set out on a second voyage to the same region, when he discovered a part of the North American continent supposed to have been New Norfolk. he and his crew, being disabled by sickness, attempted to return to Kamtchatka, but were wrecked on an island that now bears his name, where Bering died Dec. 8, 1741. His discoveries were the foundation of the claim of Russia to a large region in the far northwest of the American continent. See Alaska.