First English edition of this important work, which had been published in Russian at St. Petersburg ten years earlier; translated and edited by the Edinburgh doctor, James Grieve, also remembered for his translation of Celsus. Four years later Chappe d'Auteroche used a French translation of Krasheninnikov's work as the second volume of his Voyage en Siberie.

First English edition of this important work, which had been published in Russian at St. Petersburg ten years earlier; translated and edited by the Edinburgh doctor, James Grieve, also remembered for his translation of Celsus. Four years later Chappe d'Auteroche used a French translation of Krasheninnikov's work as the second volume of his Voyage en Siberie.

Krasheninnikov's was the first scientific account of Kamchatka, and represents an authentic and mostly eye-witness account of the area. He deals with the customs, morals and the religion of the inhabitants, and provides fascinating material on the shamanism prevalent there. There is a considerable amount of linguistic material, including comparisons between Kamchatkan, Cossack and Kurile dialects. The History is also an important source for the early history of Alaska, and particularly for details of the fur trade, upon which the Russian colony in America was based.

Krasheninnikov's Russian original was published in 1755, drawing on his experiences with Vitus Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition, and the notes from the expedition taken by zoologist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who died in 1746.

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