758 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 



For reasons wliich will hereafter become evident, it is necessary to 

 refer briefly to the several explorations made to eastern Siberia, and 

 later to the American mainland. In the following historical references 

 I use freely Mr. Ball's remarks, published in his work, "Alaska and 

 its Eesources," of which note has before been made. 



In the year 1640, the Eussiaus, under Isai Ignatief, pushed their 

 exj^lorations to the east of the Kolyma Eiver, the mouth of which is at 

 about latitude 09° 30' north and longitude 1G1° 30' east, and obtained 

 by barter from some Chukche specimens of walrus ivory. In the follow- 

 ing year, 1647, four small vessels sailed eastward of Kolyma, the party 

 being under the command of a Cossack, named Simeon Deshneff. The 

 object of this expedition was to reach the Anadyr Eiver, of which vague 

 reports had been received. Other explorers followed, but it was not 

 until 1648 that the northeast coast of Asia was passed and Bering Sea 

 entered. 



Various explorers continued, from year to year, to visit difterent por- 

 tions of the coast of Kamchatka, but it was not until 1711 that a Cos- 

 sack, named Peter Iliiinsen Popoff, arrived at East Cape with the 

 intention of collecting tribute from the Chukche. The visit proved 

 fruitless, but Popoif retiwned with an account of the Diomede Island- 

 ers and the Chukche account of a continent which lay to the east and 

 beyond these islands. 



On account of the interest manifested in these discoveries, scientific 

 men succeeded in obtaining the attention of Peter the Great, and 

 instructions for an expedition were delivered to Admiral Apraxin. A 

 few days later the Emperor died, but the Empress, in order to fulfill the 

 wishes of the deceased monarch, ordered the execution of the instruc- 

 tions, and Captain Vitus Bering was nominated to command the exjie- 

 dition. Although the original plan Avas formulated in 1725, it was not 

 until 1727 that Bering and his companions left St. Petersburg. He 

 sailed past what is now known as St. Lawrence Island, through Bering 

 Strait, and, thus proving the separation of Asia and America, returned 

 to the Kamchatka Eiver on the 20th of September without having seen 

 either the Diomede Islands or the American Coast. He returned to 

 St. Petersburg in 1730, but again went on a voyage of discovery and 

 landed on Bering Island, where he died December 8, 1741. 



In the meantime various other navigators and explorers had been 

 making considerable progress in exploring the shores of Kamchatka 

 and approaching the American Coast. In 1731 Pavlutski reached Cape 

 SerdzeKaman, in the hope of securing from the Chukche some tribute. 

 This resulted in failure, and in the interim Gwosdeff sailed to the 

 Chukche Coast; a gale drove him eastward, "where they found an 

 island, and beyond it the shores of the continent of America. They met 

 a native in a Kyak, and sailed two days along the coast without being 



