350 DISCOVERIES OF 1734. 



Kamtschatka, in a vessel called the Fortune^ manned 

 with a crew of fortv nien and tvv^o lieutenants on 

 this service. On the 1 0th August he fell in with the 

 Island of St. Laurence, and continuing his course 

 northerly till the 15th of the same month, found 

 himself in latitude 6?° 18'; and seeing no land 

 either to the northward or the eastward, and the 

 Asiatic continent trending to the westward, he 

 conceived that he had fully estahlished the fact of 

 the separation of Asia and America, and had con- 

 sequently executed his instructions; he thought 

 it therefore prudent, at this advanced season of the 

 year, to return to Kamtschatka. 



The next point was to establish the fact, whe- 

 ther a practicable navigation existed between the 

 White Sea and the sea of Kamtschatka. For this 

 purpose various expeditions were undertaken, but 

 none of them succeeded in performing the whole 

 voyage, either at once or in successive trials ; nor 

 indeed is it quite clear that the whole navigation 

 has ever been accomplished by different persons 

 at different times, though the whole has unques- 

 tionably been done, with the exception of one 

 " sacred promontory," between Yenisei and the 

 Lena, called Cape Sevei^o Vostochnoi or North-East 

 Cape. 



The first attempt from Archangel was in 1734, 

 when Lieutenant Moroviof set sail for the 

 Obe, but he reached no farther that vear than the 

 mouth of the Petchora. The following summer 



