1764. THE RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS. 355 



having fastened his vessel to a large mass of ice, 

 was drifted alono- with it to the W. S.W. at the 

 rate of five versts an hour; on the 12th he came 

 to his former wintering place in the Kovynia, in- 

 tending to make another attempt the folio whig 

 year to double Shelatskoi Noss; but want of pro- 

 visions and the mutiny of the crew forced him to 

 return to the Lena. 



The difficulties he had met with did not however 

 intimidate Shalaurof from making another attempt 

 to double Shelatskoi Noss, which he by no means 

 considered as impracticable; and for this purpose 

 he left the Lena, in the same vessel, in the year 

 1764, but neither he nor any of his crew ever 

 returned. They are supposed to have been put to 

 death by the Tschutski, near the Anadyr, the 

 third year after their departure from the Lena; 

 but whether he had succeeded in doublino- 

 the north-east promontory and passed through 

 Behring's Strait to the Anadyr, or crossed the 

 narrow neck of land which separates the Anadyr 

 from the Kovyma, has not been ascertained ; all 

 that is known being the certainty of their having 

 perished in that neighbourhood. Mr. Sauer 

 learned from Dauerkin, the Tschutski interpreter, 

 that ShalauroFs vessel had been found drifting 

 near the mouth of the Kovyma, and himself and 

 his crew frozen to death in a tent; but he doubted 

 the truth of the story. 



In all the Russian attempts to pass from Arch- 



A A 2 



