Criticising the memoir of de l'Isle of 1752, the Russian officer ridicules the author for speaking of Kamshatka as a town, but he adds:[7] "It is certain likewise that M. Bering and his lieutenant, M. Tschirikow [quoting from de l'Isle's Memoir of 1752], had, in the years 1728 and 1729, observed at Kamschatka two eclipses of the moon; but that by these observations M. de l'Isle was enabled to determine the longitude of this most eastern part of Asia, with such precision that the same had been confirmed in the second expedition, by precise observations of the satellites of Jupiter is what I cannot well conceive. Mr. de l'Isle himself intimates that Messieurs Bering and Tschirikow were not provided with astronomical instruments. They observed both these eclipses by the help, not of pendulums, but of their watches, without being able to know whether they went right or wrong; which makes it almost incredible that a determination based on these two eclipses should exactly agree with that deduced from the observations of Jupiter's satellites." [Footnote 7: "Une Lettre," Berlin, p. 19.] The officer, from his own account, served with Bering. In the introduction to "Une Lettre" he says: "The orders of your Excellency [to whom the letter was addressed as written by his orders] will be complied with by me with more than one inspiring motive, and I shall not dwell on my unfitness, although I could find excellent pretexts for such an excuse, inasmuch as many of greater experience and equal application participated with me in the discoveries which resulted from the two voyages, called by us the Kamtschatkan expeditions. The only grounds on which preference could be shown me over them arise from my being charged, after my return from America, with the comparison of the journals of the various vessels together and with whatever was elsewhere to be found relative to lands situated in the South Sea, in order to therefrom construct a map which should accurately represent them all." {222} This officer, then, should be the very best authority on this question, especially as he gives details, is always exact in his dates, and sets no value on the observations. Whether or not such observations of lunar eclipses took place, these extracts tend to confirm Dall's opinion that they served no purpose in determining the longitude of Kamshatka.