"doubled by any vessel, because the west coast of the first

" is barred in the summer by floating ice, and in winter the

66

sea there is frozen; but at the second, the sea is clear, " without ice."

SCHEUCHZER, the translator of KÆMPFER'S History of Japan, in an introduction to his translation, cites some remarks which had been published concerning the Tartars, wherein it was said, " the inhabitants of Siberia who live near "the river Lena, and along the coast of the Icy ocean, in "their commerce with Kamtschatka, commonly go with "their ships round a Suetoi Noss [or sacred cape], to avoid "the Tschelatzki and Tschuktzki, two fierce and barbarous "nations possessed of the north-east point of Siberia." On this vague authority SCHEUCHZER concludes, that Asia is not contiguous to America.

When Mr. MULLER first went into Siberia, no credited tradition appears to have been there current of the north-east extremity of Asia having been sailed round. Charts which were made in Siberia by people inhabiting the coasts of the Icy sea, showed uncertainty, and what is to be considered only as an expression of a belief of a great north-eastern promontory; for at that part, the coast was not defined by any outline, but left without limitation: whereas a more southern promontory, supposed the second from the Kolyma, was clearly delineated in the charts without any indication of doubt; and this last-mentioned promontory, it is evident, was the cape which was afterwards seen by BERING, and to which Captain Cook gave the name of Cape East, on account of its being the most eastern land known of Asia. In the instructions which were given by the Czar PETER the Great

for Captain BERING'S voyage, the question whether Asia and America were contiguous or separate, was regarded as undetermined, and some Tschuktzki people, with whom BERING had communication, informed him that, " their countrymen "who traded with the Russians on the river Kolyma, always "went thither by land with their merchandize on sledges, "drawn by rein-deer, and that they had never made the voyage by sea."

Mr. MULLER has acknowledged that from the perusal of the papers found concerning the voyage of DESCHNEW, he adopted a belief which did not before prevail, and he regarded it as a second discovery. Yet Mr. MULLER'S Own account fell very short of warranting a certainty of the manner in which DESCHNEW arrived at the Eastern Sea; and there is an irregularity in it which is perplexing. He says, ' DESCHNEW in relating his adventures speaks only incidentally of what happened to him by sea. We find no event ' mentioned till he had reached the great cape of the Tschuktzki. His relation,' says Mr. MULLER,' begins at this

cape. It lies between the north and north-east, and turns 'circular towards the river Anadir. Opposite to the cape ' are two islands, on which were seen men through whose lips were run pieces of the teeth of the sea horse. With a 'favourable wind one might sail from here to the Anadir in three days and three nights.'

The cape or promontory which is here described is evidently the Cape East in Bering's Strait; and in a subsequent part of the account, DESCHNEW is represented to have said that this Noss on which the vessel of ANKUDINOW, (one of his companions) was wrecked, was not the first promontory

that had occurred, to which they had given the name of Swiatoi Noss.' The word Swietoi signifies sacred, and is`a name suitable to a promontory which could not be doubled. And this corresponds with the Siberian charts before noticed.*

It is necessary here to explain by what means the navigators in the Icy sea were enabled to arrive with their vessels at a second promontory, without having sailed round the first. On account of the frequency of being inclosed in the Icy sea, by the drift ice, it was customary to construct vessels in a manner that admitted of their being with ease taken to pieces; by which they could be carried across the ice to the outer edge, and there be put together again. The planks were fastened and kept to the timbers only by leathern straps, in lieu of nails or pegs. The construction of the vessels in which DESCHNEW and his companions went is not specified. Mr. MULLER calls them Kotsches. Baron STRAHLENBERG says they departed eastward from the river Lena in their boats.

In the beginning of the 18th century, the Czar PETER the Great sent directions to the Governor of Iakutzk to collect information concerning the discoveries which had been made. In consequence of this order, several examinations and depositions were taken; and the few authentic particulars which are known of the voyage of DESCHNEW were thereby preserved. The most remarkable of the depositions which are cited by Mr. MULLER, next to what relates to the expedition of

It may be objected to this inference, that another cape in the Icy sea, although it has been sailed round, bears nevertheless the name of Swiætoi Noss; but it may naturally be imagined that the name was given before the difficulty had been surmounted.

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DESCHNEW, is one which was made by a person named NIKIPHOR MALGIN, who stated that "a merchant named "TARAS STADUCHIN, did many years before relate to him, the deponent, that he had sailed with ninety men in a Kotsche " from the river Kolyma towards the great cape of the "Tschuktzki: that not being able to double it, they had crossed "over on foot to the other side, where they built other vessels. "The small breadth of the isthmus at the part where they "crossed, is noticed as the most remarkable circumstance in "this deposition." They afterwards proceeded along the coast round the Kamtschatka Peninsula, till they came to the Penschinska gulf; and, in the short account which is given of this navigation, is found, expressed in an obscure manner, the first notice obtained by the Russians of the Kurilski islands.

This is a clearly described passage. Besides the expedition of DESCHNEW, and this of TARAS STADUCHIN, only one other instance is mentioned of any vessel having gone by sea from the Kolyma round the Tschuktzki coast; and this last mentioned case rests on the authority of an unauthenticated tradition, purporting that some man had gone in a vessel not larger than a skiff, from the Kolyma to Kamtschatka; and no other particular is spoken of in the report.

This was the state of the information obtained concerning the north-eastern extremity of Asia, at the time of Captain BERING'S Voyage. The Asiatic side only of Bering's Strait was discovered in that voyage, and the coast of Asia being there found to take a western direction, it had the effect of giving an impression, equal to demonstration, of a total separation of Asia and America. And after that time, and not

before, DESCHNEW was believed to have performed the whole of his voyage from the Kolyma to the Anadir by sea.

Many reports had circulated in Siberia of the existence of northern lands in the Icy sea; but persons sent purposely to examine, had not found land, which much discredited the reports. A chart in which a northern land was marked was however published at Petersburgh, about the year 1626, by a Colonel SCHESTAKOW, of the Jakutzk Kossaks, a man of great ability as well as enterprise. Neither SCHESTAKOW nor his chart, however, are favourably noticed by Mr. MULLER, who was in general a candid historian. On SCHESTAKOW'S chart, the north land was marked with the name of the Large Country. M. de LISLE gave credit to SCHESTAKOW's map for the Large Country, which he makes appear on his own chart as a part of America, extending westward beyond the Kolyma.

Between the years 1734 and 1789, three expeditions were undertaken to ascertain the limits of Asia to the north and north-east, from which no advantage was reaped, and they were attended with circumstances of extraordinary distress and misery. These undertakings show that the boundary of Asia was not then regarded as ascertained. In 1764, a chart was sent from Siberia to Petersburgh, which again showed a continuation of the American continent stretching far to the west, and opposite to the Siberian coast of the Icy sea.

Between the years 1760 and 1765, no less than four attempts were made by one and the same individual, a Russian merchant, named SHALAUROF, to sail from the Icy sea round the north-east of Asia. In the last of these attempts this en