I 



XIII.] MERCUREJ WAGIN. 527 



SKY was rqjvode at Yakutsk (1667-75), Malgin travelled along 

 with a trader, Andrej Woripajev, by sea from the Lena to the 

 Kolyma. During this voyage the pilot directed the attention of 

 all on board to an island, lying far out at sea, west of the mouth 

 of the Kolyma. In course of a conversation regarding it, after 

 Malgin had succeeded in reaching the Kolyma, another trader, 

 Jakob Wiatka, stated that on one occasion when he was sailing 

 with nine " kotsches " between the Lena and the Kolyma, three 

 of them had been driven by wind to this island, and that 

 the men who had been sent ashore there, found traces of 

 unknown animals, but no inhabitants. 



All these narratives, however, do not appear to have met with 

 full credence. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 accordingly, new explorations and new expeditions were under- 

 taken. A Cossack, Jakob Permakov, stated that during a 

 voyage between the Lena and the Kolyma, he had seen oft 

 Svjatoinos an island, of which he knew not whether it was 

 inhabited or not, and likewise, that off the mouth of the Kolyma 

 there was an island which could be seen from land. In order to 

 make sure of the correctness of this statement, a Cossack, 

 Mercurej Wagin, was sent out. He travelled along with 

 Permakov, in the month of May, in dog-sledges over the 

 ice from Svjatoinos to the island lying off it, that Permakov 

 had seen. They landed there, found it uninhabited and treeless, 

 and fixed its circumference at nine to twelve days' journey. 

 Beyond this island Wagin saw another, which, however, he could 

 not reach for want of provisions. He therefore determined to 

 turn, in order to undertake the journey the following year in a 

 better state of preparation. During the return journey the 

 party suffered severely from hunger, and in order to avoid 

 a renewal of the dangerous and difiicult journey of exploration, 

 the men at last murdered Permakov, Wagin, and his son. The 

 crime was discovered, and the knowledge we possess of this 

 expedition is founded on the confused information obtained 

 during the examination of the murderers. Mliller even throws 

 doubts on the truth of the whole narrative. 



The attempts which were afterwards made to reach those 

 islands, partly by sea in 1712, by Wasilej Staduchin, partly 

 by dog-sledges in 1714 by Alexej Markov and Grigorej 

 Kusakov, yielded no result. Ten years afterwards, "the old 

 saga" of the islands in the Polar Sea, induced one SiN Bajorski 

 Feodot Amossov to undertake an expedition with a view to 

 impose tribute on their inhabitants, but he was prevented by 

 ice from reaching his goal. On the way he met with a hunter, 

 Ivan Willegin, who said, that along with another hunter, 

 Grigorej Saxkix, he had travelled over the ice to these islands 

 from the mouth of the river Chukotskaja. He had seen neither 



