RUSSIAN EXTENSION EASTWARDS 5 



mand of Dejneff. This expedition, at the expense of 

 an enterprising- merchant called Alexeieff, who himself 

 took part in it, encountered a heavy storm, which de- 

 stroyed half the flotilla. The remaining half, however, 

 with the leaders on board, crossed Behring- Straits 

 and landed their persevering crew at the mouth of the 

 Anadyr River. Alexeieff continued his course south- 

 wards, and is supposed to have been the first Russian 

 who visited Kamchatka. The legend says that he 

 wintered on the coast of the peninsula, and was mur- 

 dered, together with his men, by the natives. The fact 

 remains that he was never heard of again, and it was 

 only a century later that Krasheninikoff, whose stan- 

 dard work on Kamchatka still possesses great interest, 

 picked up the tradition which was then current among 

 some of the tribes. Dejneff was more successful ; he 

 defeated the warlike Tchuktchis in several skirmishes 

 on his way up the Anadyr, and established a fort 

 some five hundred miles from the sea. 



A Cossack, by the name of Atlassoff, was the first 

 to bring back definite information on Kamchatka. 

 He started in 1697 from the Anadyr settlement 

 with a force of a hundred armed men, and reached 

 the Kamchatka River, after having crossed several 

 mountain passes and routed the Koriak tribes who 

 inhabited the northern part of the peninsula. Leaving 



