Having been appointed surgeon in the Russian army, which at that time was besieging Danzig, he went with a transport of wounded soldiers, after the surrender of that town, to St. Petersburg, where he arrived in 1734. Here his talents were soon appreciated; after a few years he was named a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and sent by Government, in 1738, to examine the natural productions of Kamchatka. The ability and zeal with which he fulfilled this mission is proved by the valuable collections which he sent to the Academy, and by his numerous memoirs, which are still read with interest in the present day. In 1741 he accompanied Bering on his second voyage of discovery, the object of which was to determine the distance of America from Kamchatka, and to ascertain the separation or the junction of both continents in a higher latitude--a question which his first voyage had left undecided. Nothing could be more agreeable to a man like Steller, than the prospects held out to him by an expedition to unknown regions; and we can easily imagine the delight with which the naturalist embarked on board of the “Saint Peter,” commanded by Bering in person. Accompanied by the “Saint Paul,” under Tschirigow, they sailed on June 4 from the Bay of Avatscha. The expedition had cost ten years of preparation, and brought misery and ruin upon many of the wild Siberian tribes, for all that was necessary for the outfit had to be conveyed by compulsory labor from the interior of the continent over mountains and rivers, through dense forests and pathless wilds, and it seemed from the very beginning of the voyage as if the curses of the unfortunate natives clung to it. Much valuable time had been lost, for the ships ought to have sailed at least a month earlier, and Bering, who from illness constantly kept to his cabin, was by no means a fit commander for a scientific expedition. After a few days a dense fog separated the vessels, which were never to meet again; and as the “St. Peter” held her course too much to the south, the Aleutic chain remained undiscovered, and the first land was only sighted after four weeks in the neighborhood of Bering’s Bay. During the whole of this passage Steller had to endure all the vexations which arrogant stupidity could inflict upon a man anxious to do his duty. It was in vain that he repeatedly pointed out the signs which indicated the presence of land not far to the north, in vain that he entreated the commander to steer but one day in that direction. At last, on July 15, the high mountains of America were seen to rise above the horizon, and the vessel anchored on the 19th near to the small island of Kaiak.