] () SIBKIfl A. 



Such sf'frct otilmiizalioii at times atliiiin'il lairly consjilcratjlo iliiiifii^ioii*;, so that llie 

 Stal(! authority had tu tako scvcic uicasun's to stop this uinh'sirahki moveiiifiit. 



To^cthfr Willi llic scttlcnu-nt iil'Sihcria iti the cowrsi; of thf cij/hteonth century apju-ared 

 tlio uffossity lor its cxploratiou. The l-'-nipfior Pfter the (ircat heoomos the initiat4»r 

 in this matter, as iti evorylhiti^' else, lieco^'ni/.iiif,' that the attempts to ostahlish ic{.'uhir sea 

 lommuiiieation with Kamchatka in plaee of the distant and circuitous road throufrli tlie nortli- 

 ern tuiMlnis, iljd not siiccceil, IVom the inaliility to build ships, lie sent on this aceoiint 

 Swedish inisniiers acrjuainted with ship huildiii^ to Okhotsk. On a ship built by Henry 

 lliisch the lirst attempt \vas made in 171fi, and in J717 took place the perfectly successful 

 voyajre (d' the Cossack Sokiilii\, alter whiih re^Milar communication between Okhotsk and 

 Kamchatka was established. Next, I'eter the Great was interested in the (piestion of whether 

 there is a passajje into the Arctic Ocean between the Asiatic and American continents, the 

 solution of this question ])y the voyage of Dezhniev being unknown to the Emperor, 

 lie equippeil Inr the purpose of deciding this question a great Northern Expedition, under 

 the commauil (d' the Danish sailor in the Russian service, Vitus Berend, Lieutenant Shpanherg 

 and Alexei Chirikov. The expedition started from St. Petersburg in the year of Peter the 

 Great's death, 1725, and only alter tliiee years reaehed Kamehatka through Siberia. Berend 

 sailed out into the sea from Xizhni-Kamchatsk on the 31st of .July, 1728, on the 19th of 

 August, approached the Chukot peninsula under 64*^ .^,0' X. L., on the 21st of August dis- 

 covered the island (d' SI. Lawrence and on the 20111 id' August saw under 67" 18' X. L. the 

 north-eastern extremity of Asia, Cape Dezhniev, and considering the question of the existence 

 of a strait between Asia and America completely solved, returned to Xizhni-Kamcliatsk. 

 Berend's successful voyage did not remain without consequences. 



"The Russians commenced a whole series of attempts with the object of exploring 

 the coasts of the Arctic Ocean and thus discovering a passage through it to America. la 

 1739 the expedition of Lieutenant Proncliischev fitted out for the Lena had imposed upon it 

 the problem of exploring the seacoast between the mouths of the Lena and the Yenissei. 

 But the expedition only succeeded in getting as far as the mouth of the Olenek and Pron- 

 chischev himself and his wife died on the desert shore of the ocean. The expedition of 

 Lieutenant Laptev, which followed next, succeded in reaching the Taimir peninsula, namely, to 

 Cape St. Thaddeus, but was not able to weather Cape Cheliuskin and Laptev's companion^ 

 Clieliuskiu, was obliged to survey it only from the land side. At the same time, that is, in 

 1739 to 1740, Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev was commissioned to describe the littoral to the east 

 of the mouth of the Lena. Only after these two years efforts did Laptev, passing by the 

 JMedviezhi Islands, reach Cape Baranov, but was unable to make the passage into Behring 

 Strait. 



from 1733 to 1743 belongs the remarkable scientific land expedition fitted out to explore 

 the whole of Siberia under the guidance of the best men of science of the time, the naturalist 

 Gmelin, subsequently author of the first Siberian Flora, and the historian iliiller, the author 

 of the History of Siberia. Into the composition of this remarkable scientific expedition entered 

 also the astronomer Delille, Professor Fisher, assistant Steller, several students and geodesists. 

 The expedition returned from Yakutsk, but Delille, Steller and the student Krasheninnikov 



