338 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



himself with thongs from his lofty asylum, nearly overhanging 

 the sea, enters a boat, which waits for him at the foot of the cliff, 

 and, in order to lead his pursuers astray, steers first towards the 

 east, but at nightfall turns to the west, reaches Schalaurov 

 Island, and there fortifies himself in an earth hut, whose remains 

 we (Wrangel's expedition) have still seen. Here he then collected 

 all the members of his tribe, and fled with them in 15 " baydars " 

 to the land whose mountains the Chukches assure themselves 

 they can in clear sunshine see from Cape Yakan. During the 

 following winter a Chukch related to Krachoj disappeared in 

 addition with his family and reindeer, and it is supposed that he 

 too betook himself to the land beyond the sea. With this 

 another tradition agrees, which was communicated to us by the 

 inhabitants of Kolyutschin Island. For an old man informed 

 me ( Wrangel) that durmg his grandfather's lifetime a " baydar " 

 with seven Chukches, among them a woman, had ventured too 

 far out to sea. After they had long been driven hither and 

 thither by the wind, they stranded on a country unknown to 

 them, whose inhabitants struck the Chukches themselves as 

 coarse and brutish. The shipwrecked men were all murdered. 

 Only the woman was saved, was very well treated, and taken 

 round the whole country, and shown to the natives as something 

 rare and remarkable. So she came at last to the Kargauts, 

 a race living on the American coast at Behring's Straits, whence 

 she found means to escape to her own tribe. This woman told 

 her countrymen much about her travels and adventures ; among 

 other things she said that she had been in a great land which 

 lay north of Kolyutschin Island, stretched far to the loest, and 

 was probably connected with America. This land was inhabited 

 by several races of men ; those living in the west resembled the 

 Chukches in every respect, but those living in the east were so 

 wild and brutish, that they scarcely deserved to be called men. 

 The whole account, both of the woman herself and of the 

 narrators of the tradition, is mixed up with so many improbable 

 adventures, that it would scarcely be deserving of any attention 

 were it not remarkable for its correspondence with the history 

 of Krachoj."^ 



When Wrangel wrote that, he did not believe in the existence 

 of the land which is to be found set out on his map in 177° E.L. 

 and 71° N.L., and which, afterwards discovered by the English- 

 man Kellet, according to the saying. Ulcus a non lucendo, 

 obtained the name of Wrangel Land. Now we know that the 

 land spoken of by tradition actually exists, and therefore there 

 is much that even tells in favour of its extending as far as to 

 the archipelago on the north coast of America. 



1 Wrangel's Reise, Th. 2, Berlin, 1839, p. 220. 



