38 REV. D.'GATH WHITLEY, ON THE 
exchenging goods, the Russians returned to Archangel with 
valuable cargoes of furs and other merchandise. This trade 
was carried on for some time, until the conquest of Siberia by 
the Russians diverted it into other channels. When the 
conquests of the roving Cossacks had firmly established the 
Russian authority over the greater portion of Siberia, bands of 
traders searching for furs, began to explore the coasts of the 
Arctic Ocean. “All through ‘the last half of the seventeenth 
century these expeditions were carried on, and vague reports 
of islands, situated amidst the ice-fields of the Polar Sea, from 
time to time reached the Russian settlements. In the early 
part of the eighteenth century more scientific voyages were 
undertaken, and the coasts were more carefully examined, 
Vessels were built at Tobolsk, and Irkutsk, and in these the 
Obi and the Lena were descended to the icy sea, and the shores 
were surveyed in all directions. In these voyages the Russians 
often caught sight of islands far to the north, although they 
were not able thorouglily toexamine them, In 1711 Permakoff, 
a Cossack who lived near the mouth of the Yana, made a voyage 
from the Lena to the Kolyma, and saw large islands off the 
mouths of the Kolyma and the Yena, which were according to 
his report, very mountainous. In 1712 a large expedition left 
the mouth of the Yana for the north, and discovered a large 
island, which was rugged and barren, and in 1760 a Yakut 
calle Eterikan saw a large island to the north-east of the 
mouth of the Lena. These reports raised the interest of 
the fur-hunters, and before long a remarkable discovery was 
made. 
One of the most active and successful of the fur-hunters of 
that time was named Liakoff, and he from time to time obtained 
ereat quantities not only of valuable furs, but also of fossil 
ivory from the tusks and teeth of the mammoths, which he 
ce collected or received from the native Siberians. In 
1750 Liakoff had been particularly successful, and had gathered 
a vast quantity of mammoths’ tusks and remains on the desolate 
plains between the rivers Anabar and Khatanga. From this 
region he returned with his spoils, to the southern districts, and 
in order to carry on his expeditions with greater celerity, he 
built huts near the mouth of the Yana, ‘at a place called 
Ust¥ansk, where he and his assistants could pass the winter. 
In 1770 in the month of March, he left this winter settlement 
accompanied by a friend named Protodiakonoff, and reached the 
promontory of Svaiatoi Noss. This is a bold headland which 
runs out into the Arctic Ocean, about 300 miles east of the mouth 
