Bering Strait, a narrow water-passage north of the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, in the Northern Pacific, connecting the latter with the Arctic Ocean. It is in the vicinity of long. 170° W., having on the east of it Alaska and on the west the projecting peninsula of Siberia, in Russian Asia. It was at an early era discovered by a Russian Cossack navigator, named Deshneff, and subsequently explored by Captains Bering and Cook. At its narrowest part it is about 40 miles in width, and has a depth varying from 150 to 250 feet, the deeper water being on the Asiatic side. St. Lawrence Island lies to the south of the Strait, in Bering Sea,
