LAC AY) SOB OAL 
wreck, but efcaped to enjoy the honor of his difcovery. Many other attempts were 
made, but the moft which the adventurers have done was to get from the mouth of 
one great river to another in the courfe of a fummer. I find very few names, ex- 
cept of rivers, in a tract fo vaft as it is, on account of its being fo little frequented. 
To the eaft of the promontory Taimura, that of Si, Transfigurationis bounds the 
eaft fide of the bay of Chatanga, in lat. 74. 40, long. from Ferro 125. Swaitoi-nofs, 
or the Holy Cape, in lat. 73. 15, is a far-projecting headland, and, with the ifles 
of the Lena, and another intervening headland, forms two vaft bays. Out of the 
moft eaftern, into which the river Yana difcharges itfelf, one Schalourof, a broken 
Ruffian merchant, took his departure for an eaftern difcovery. He began his voyage 
in July 1760 from the Lena, but was fo obftruéted with ice that he was forced into 
the Yana, where he was detained the whole winter, by the fame caufe, till Fuly 29th, 
1761. He doubled the Swaitoi-nofs September the 6th ; according to fome, faw to 
the north a montanous land, poflibly an ifland. He was eight days in getting 
through the paflage between the continent and the ifle of St. Diomede, which lies 
a little to the fouth-eaft of the Nofs. He pafled with a favorable wind the mouths 
of the Jndigirka and Alaxeia, and getting entangled among the ice between the 
Medviedkie Offrova, or Bear Iflands, was obliged to lay up his veffel in one of the 
mouths of the Kolyma during winter, where he fubfifted on rein-deer, which 
frequented thofe parts in great herds during the fevere feafon ; and on various 
fpecies of falmon and trout, which were pufhing their way up the river before it 
was frozen. After this he made two other attempts. In the year 1763 he pafled 
the Pe/zcanoci-nofs, and got intoa deep bay, called T/chaoin Skaja Goba, with the 
ifle of Sabedei atits mouth; the great Schalat/koi-no/s to the eaft; and at its bottom 
the little river T/chaouén, which difcharges itfelf here out of the land of the T/chut/ki, 
fome of whom he faw on the fhore, but they fled on his appearance. He found no 
means of fubfifting in this bay, therefore was obliged to return to the Lena, and 
was greatly affifted in his paflage by the ftrength of the current, which uni- 
formly fet from the eaft. In 1764 he made his laft attempt, and was, as is 
conjectured, flain by the T/chut/ki ; but whether he doubled the famous cape of 
that name, is left uncertain., A MS. map, which Doétor Patzas favored me 
with, places the montanous ifle before mentioned in lat. 75, oppofite to the 
cape Schalatfkoi *, Thus clofes all the accounts I can colleé& of the voyages along 
© This was fuppofed to have been part of the continent of Ayerica ; but in 1768, M. Tchit/cherix, 
governor of Sibiria, put the matter out of doubt; for he fent there three young officers in the winter, 
on the ice. They found fome finall defart ifles, without the left appearance of land on the north ; but 
on one they met with a fort of defence, formed of floating wood, on the fide of a precipice, but by 
whom formed, or againit what enemy, is hard to guefs, Pa.tas, MS, 
fe) this 
cy 
