TRAVELLING ACROSS ICE. 59 



But this speed, tliougii so considerable, was by no 

 means equal to what the Kamtchatka dogs are ca- 

 pable of performing ; the governor of Kamtchatka, 

 Major Behm, (who so liberally and so disinterest- 

 edly supplied the wants of our voyagers,) having as- 

 sured the officers belonging to these discovery ships, 

 that the journey from St Peter and St Paul to Bol- 

 sherietzkoi and back, was usually performed in two 

 days and a-half ; and that he had once received an ex- 

 press from the bay of Avatscha, which is the harbour 

 of St Peter and St Paul, in twenty-three hours*. 



But the argument which goes farthest towards 

 proving the practicability of travelling over ice, is 

 the fact, of a Cossack having actually performed a 

 journey of about 800 miles, in a sledge drawn by 

 dogs, across a surftice of ice lying to the northward 

 of the llussian dominions. This remarkable ex- 

 ploit, as related by JNIuller, is to the following ef- 

 fect. 



Alexei IMarkofF, a Cossack, was sent from Yak- 

 utsk, to explore the frozen ocean, in the summer of 

 the year 1714, by order of the Russian govern- 

 ment ; but finding the sea so crowded with ice, 

 that he was unable to make any progress in disco^ 

 very, he formed the design of travelling in sledges, 

 during the winter or spring of the year, over the 

 ice, which might then be expected to be firm and 



* Idem, Journal, 3d May 1779. 



