RefNo | MM/7/60 |
Level | Item |
Title | Copy of letter from Matthew Guthrie, 'Instruction for the Geographical and Astronomical Voyage of Joseph Billings' |
Date | 25 June 1787 |
Description | Mostly in Banks's hand. 6 sides of the item in a different hand and in French.
"The expedition's main tasks were to map the area from the mouth of the River Kolyma in north-east Siberia along the east Siberian sea shoreline to the Bering Strait; to chart the Chukotka peninsula inland from the Bering Strait as far as Cape Shelagsky; and to provide accurate maps of the chain of Aleutian Islands and others lying between Kamchatka and the American coast. Billings's instructions, drawn up by Professor P. S. Pallas, the eminent natural historian and scientist at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, covered all aspects of the expedition, including ethnography, and its 141 members were fully equipped with scientific instruments" (from the entry on Billings in the 'Oxford DNB'). |
Extent | 23 sides |
Format | Manuscript |
AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
Code | PersonName | Dates |
NA1806 | Guthrie; Matthew (- 1807) | - 1807 |