528 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



men nor trees, but some abandoned liuts. " Probably this land ex- 

 tends all the way from the mouth of the Yana, past the Indigirka 

 and Kolyma to the region which is inhabited by the Schelags, a 

 Chukcli tribe." He had learned this from a Schelag named 

 Kopai, at whose home he had been the preceding year. In 

 order to reach this land by sea it was necessary to start from 

 the coast which the Schelags inhabited, because the sea was less 

 covered by ice there. 



As Amossov could not reach his goal by sea he travelled 

 thither the same year, in November, 172-i, over the ice, but his 

 description of the land differs widely from that of his prede- 

 cessor, and Midler appears to entertain great doubts of the 

 truthfulness of the narrative.^ On the ground of a map con- 

 structed by the Cossack, Colonel Schestakov, who, however, ac- 

 cording to Miiller, could neither read nor write, this new land was 

 introduced into Delisle and Buache's map, with the addition 

 that the Schelag Kopai lived there, and had there been taken 

 prisoner by the Russians. This is so far incorrect, as Kopai did 

 not live on any island, but on the mainland, and never was 

 prisoner with the Russians, although after having paid tribute 

 to them, he tired of doing so, and killed some of Amossov's 

 people, after which no more was heard of him. Miiller com- 

 plains loudly of the incorrect statement regarding Kopai, but 

 the learned academician commits a much greater mistake, inas- 

 much as he considers that he ought to leave the numerous 

 accounts of hunters and Cossacks about land and islands in the 

 Siberian Polar Sea completely out of account. All these lands 

 are therefore left out of the map published by the Petersburg 

 Academy in the year 1758.^ It is in this respect much more 

 incomplete than the map which accompanies Strahlenberg's 

 book.^ 



Before I begin to sketch the explorations of the great 



^ But we ought to remember that the oldest accounts of islands in the 

 Polar Sea relate to no fewer than four different lands, viz., 1. The New 

 Siberian Islands lying off the mouth of the Lena and Svjatoinos ; 2. 

 The Bear Islands ; 3. Wrangel Land ; 4. The north-western part of 

 America. Contradictions in accounts of the islands in the Polar Sea 

 probably depend on the uninhabited and treeless New Siberian islands 

 being confused with America, which, in comparison with Nortli Siberia, is 

 thickly peopled and well wooded, with the small Bear Islands, with 

 Wrangel Land, &c. 



" Nouvelle carte. des decouvertes faites jiar des vaisseaux russiens aux 

 cotes inconnues de VAmerique Septenirionale avec les ])ais adiaceiites, dressee 

 sur des memoires authentiques des ceux qui ont ass'iste a ces decouvertes 

 bt sur d'autres connoissances dont on rend raison dans un mcmoire separe. 

 St. Petersbourg, I'Academie Impt5riale des Sciences, 1758. 



3 In this sketch of the discovery and conquest of Siberia I have followed 

 J. E. Fischer, Sihirische Geschichte, St. Petersburg, 1768, and G. P. Miiller, 

 Sanindung Eussischer Geschichtey St. Petersburg, 1758. 



