xni.] COOK'S EXPEDITION. 557 



way over such a sea resembles the even polished surface of a 

 frozen lake, over which we dwellers in the north are accustomed 

 to speed along almost with the velocity of the wind. Wrangel's 

 narrative at the same time forms an important source of know- 

 ledge both of preceding journeys and of the recent natural 

 conditions on the north coast of Asia, as is only too evident from 

 the frequent occasions on which I have quoted his work in my 

 sketch of the voyage of the Vega. 



It remains for me now to enumerate some voyages from 

 Behring's Straits westward into the Siberian Polar Sea. 



1778 and 1779. — During the third of his famous circum- 

 navigations of the globe James Cook penetrated through 

 Behring's Straits into the Polar Sea, and then along the north- 

 east coast of Asia westwards to Irkaipij, called by him Cape 

 North. Thus the honour of having carried the first seagoing 

 vessel to this sea also belongs to the great navigator. He 

 besides confirmed Behring's determination of the position of 

 the East Cape of Asia, and himself determined the position 

 of the opposite coast of America.^ The same voyage was 

 approximately repeated the year after Cook's death by his 

 successor Chaeles Clarke, but without any new discoveries 

 being made in the region in question. 



1785-91^. — The success which attended Cook in his exploratory 

 voyages and the information, unlooked for even by the Russian 

 government, which Coxe's work gave concerning the voyages of 

 the Russian hunters in the North Pacific, led to the equipment 

 of a grand new expedition, having for its object the further 



' The first European who visited the part of America lying riglit opposite 

 to Asia was Schestakov's companion, the surveyor Gvosdev. He crossed 

 Behring's Straits to the American side as early as 1730 {Midler, iii. p. 131), 

 and therefore ought properly to be considered as the discoverer of this 

 sound. The north-westernmost part of America, Behring's Straits and the 

 islands situated in it, are besides shown in Strahlenberg's map, which was 

 made at least a decade before Gvosdev's voyage. There north-western 

 America is delineated as a large island, inhabited by a tribe, the Pucho- 

 rhoisk'i, who lived in a constant state of warfare with the GiuchiegJti, who 

 inhabited the islands in the sound. Wrangel Land is also shown in this 

 remarkable map. In 1767, eleven years before Cook's voyage in the Polar 

 Sea, the American side of Behring's Straits was also visited by Lieut. Synd 

 with a Russian expedition, that started from Okotsk in 1764. In the short 

 account of the voyage which is to be found in William Coxe's Account of 

 the Russian Discoveries, &c., London, 1780, p. 300, it is said expressly that 

 Synd considered the coast on which he landed to belong to America. On 

 S3-nd's map, published by Coxe, the north part of the Behring Sea is 

 enriched with a number of fictitious islands (St. Agaphonis, St. Myronis, 

 St. Titi, St. Samuelis, and St. Andrefe). As Synd, according to Sarytchev 

 in the work quoted below, p. 11, made the voyage in a boat, it is probable 

 that by these names i.slands were indicated which lay quite close to the 

 coast and were not so far from land as siiown in the map ; l)esides, the 

 moimtain-simimits on St. Lawrence Island, which are separated by extensive 

 low lands, may perhaps have been taken for separate islands. 



