2JZ. 



A VOYAGE TO 



1779- mura, ftretchlng to the 78 of latitude, which the good for- 

 tune of no fingle voyager has hitherto doubled. 



It is, however, contended, that there are ftrong reafons 

 for believing, that the fea is more free from ice, the nearer 

 we approach to the pole ; and that all the ice we faw in the 

 lower latitudes, was formed in the great rivers of Siberia 

 and America, the breaking up of which had filled the in- 

 termediate fea. But even if that fuppofition be true, it is 

 equally fo, that there can be no accefs to thofe open feas, 

 unlefs this great mafs of ice is fo far diflblved in the fum- 

 mer, as to admit of a fhip's getting through it. If this be 

 the fact, we have taken a wrong time of the year for at- 

 tempting to find this pafTage, which mould have been ex- 

 plored in April and May, before the rivers were broken up. 

 But how many reafons may be given againft fuch a fuppo- 

 fition. Our experience at Saint Peter and Saint Paul en- 

 abled us to judge what might be expected farther North; 

 and upon that ground, we had reafon to doubt, whether 

 the continents might not in winter be even joined by the 

 ice ; and this agreed with the ftories we heard in Kamtf- 

 chatka, that on the Siberian coaft, they go out from the 

 more in winter, upon the ice, to greater diftances than the 

 breadth of the fea is, in fome parts, from one continent to 

 the other. 



In the depofitions referred to above, the following remark- 

 able circumftance is related. Speaking of the land feen 

 from the Tfchukotfkoi Nofs, it is faid, " that in fummer 

 time they fail in one day to the land in baidares, a fort of 

 veflel conftru&ed of whale-bone, and covered with feal- 

 fkins ; and in winter time, going fwift with rein deer, the 

 journey may likewife be made in a day." A fufficient 



proof, 



