30 Sketch of Siberia, gc. 
tribe of Asiatics. ‘They have a tradition that some of their people 
have been driven beyond seas by prevailing sickness or persecution ; 
and it seems highly probable, that the Esquimaux are their descend- 
ants, tamed into apathy and cowardice, perhaps, by sustaining greater 
privations. ‘They have no tradition of a northern land, but, say that 
the sea on their northern frontier is frozen ten months in the year, 
and that nothing but ice-mountains are visible; that the sea breaks 
up in August and September, but not so as to admit the passage of 
vessels ; and that the intermediate lands between themselves and the 
sea, are mountainous, barren, and deeply covered with snow. These 
representations, corresponding with ascertained facts relating to the 
Arctic regions on other meridians, and the additional fact, that the 
Baron Wrangle found a continuous coast around Shelatskoi Noss, 
strengthen the probability that an undivided ocean stretches across 
the Pole, and that the north coasts of Europe and Asia, form a land 
shore upon its margin, within the Arctic circle, from North Cape, in 
Lapland, eastward to Bhering’s straits. 
OKOTSE, 
This grand division of Siberia includes Kamschatka within its 
government, and has its capital on the sea of Okotsk, in 60° N, lat. 
140° E. long. From the river Kolyma, S. S. W. to Okotsk, is 
nearly two thousand miles. The country is diversified with snow 
clad mountains, overflowed morasses, decayed forests, frozen lakes, 
and rapid and dangerous rivers. The town has been erected princi- 
pally by the Russian American Company, the head officer of which 
resides there. Meat and fish are plentiful, but bread is dear, and 
vegetables scarce and inferior. Forests of timber in the vicinity of 
Okotsk, make it an advantageous place for a dock yard, and sub- 
stantial vessels are built and fitted but to transport goods and pro- 
visions to Idgiga, and Kamschatka. Ships arriving from America, 
bring most valuable cargoes of furs to Okotsk, but the province may 
he termed a dreary waste, from the border of its principal city, to 
the river Anadyr, on the north east confines of Asia. 
KAMSCHATKA. 
The stormy sea of Okotsk is navigated with difficulty, owing, in 
some measure, to deficient surveys. It divides the city and the 
