296 TSCHITSCHAGOFF. 



a.d. any sensible persons. Such individuals would, 



1 fi7fi 



of course, attribute the disastrous failure of the 

 expedition to the proper cause ; but certain it is 

 that the ardour which the subject formerly ex- 

 cited, appeared from that period entirely to sub- 

 side ; nor was it revived for nearly a century. 



During this interval the Russians made re- 

 peated attempts to pass along the northern shores 

 of Europe and Asia by a coast navigation, each 

 expedition adding a small portion to the hydro- 

 graphy of those parts, until nearly the whole of 

 the coast-line was ascertained from the North 

 Cape to Kamtschatka. But this acquisition to 

 Arctic geography was not acquired without great 

 difficulty and innumerable perils, or without the 

 loss of many lives. 



TSCHITSCHAGOFF. 



1764. In 1764, the Russian Government, finding 

 that a navigable passage in an eastern direction 

 was hopeless, planned an expedition to the 

 north by the way of Spitzbergen ; and in the 

 same year sent a vessel to form an establishment 

 in Bell Sound, as a depot for the intended ex- 



1765. pedition, which, the next year, sailed under the 

 command of Vassili Tschitschagoff. The ex- 

 pedition was directed to proceed to Spitzbergen 

 first, and then to endeavour to proceed north- 



