430 



OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



have been observed by them, for the bold headland of Cape Prince 

 of Wales can be easily descried on any clear day from the Asiatic 

 side. Deschnev's vogage had been quite forgotten until Mtiller, in 

 hunting over old records in 1764, found the narrative then, and at 

 once published it in the "Morskoi Sbornik." 



A long interregnum elapsed between the hardy voyage of Sim- 

 eon Deschnev and the next or second passage of the straits by the 

 keel of a white man's vessel. Not until August, 1728, did Bering 

 sail through here. He went only a short distance above, into the 

 Arctic Ocean, and returned without giving any sign thereafter of 

 the importance of the pass or its nature, believing, most likely, 

 that what land he saw on the eastern side was a mere island and 

 not a great American continent. But that intrepid navigator, Cap- 



The Diomedes. 



" Fairway Rock." " Ignalook" (America). "Noornabook *' (Asia). 



[ Viewed from the Arctic Ocean ; looking S.S. \V, 7 m.] 



tain Cook, who comes third in this early initiation of our race, 

 made no mistake : he fully realized that the division of two hemi- 

 spheres was here effected, and so declared the fact, and then gave 

 to these straits, in a most chivalric manner, the name of Bering, 

 August, 1778. 



Midway, stepping-stones as it were, across those straits are the 

 Diomedes, two barren, rocky islets and a sheer rock. The largest and 

 the most western is about three miles long and one in width ; it is 

 seven or eight hundred feet in abrupt elevation from the water, and 

 the line of division between the Siberian possessions and our own 

 just takes it in. The sister island is somewhat smaller, less than 

 half as large, but it is as bold and sheer in its rocky elevation, 

 leaving a channel-width of two miles only in between. The first 

 is named Ratmanov, or Noornabook ; the second, Kroozenstern, or 



