KAMTSCHATKA. 2^7 



Even if the documents, of which Miiller, Coxc, 

 and Tallas were in possession, and from wliich they 

 communicated to us Deschnew's voyage, were lost, 

 these men appear to us sufficient sureties, and we 

 unhesitatingly receive their authority ; that in tliis 

 one case tlie north-east cape, or Schelatzkoy-noss, 

 was douhled by sea. 



Other accounts and traditions of a similar 

 voyage appear to ourselves unauthorized. We 

 readily credit the statement of Dauerkin, commu- 

 nicated to us by Sauer, that SchalaurofF perished, in 

 iGGly in the Icy Sea, and not at the mouth of the 

 Anadyr ; and we have no faith in the voyage of 

 Laptiew, in 17^0, as it is pretended to be related, 

 according to Gmelin*s verbal declarations in the 

 Memoires et Observations Geographiques et Cri- 

 tiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux. Lau- 

 sanne, I7G5, 4to. p. 42. 



The European harpoons, found sticking in 

 whales, by Hendrick Hamel, on the coast of Corea, 

 in 1G53, and again, in I7I6, by Henry Busch, on 

 the coast of Kamtschatka, appear to us of some 

 moment. Burney, in opposition to Miiller assumes 

 that Busch merely repeated what Hamel saw, and 

 this supposition appears to us very arbitrary. He 

 is farther of opinion, that the Russians, long before 

 the time of Busch, may have introduced the use of 

 European harpoons on these coasts ; but this we 

 know, from our own knowledge, not to be the case. 

 The Russians, weak in number in this part of the 



