30 Sketch of Siberia, ^-c. 



tribe of Asiatics. They have a tradition that some of their people 

 have been driven beyond seas by prevailing sickness or persecution ', 

 and it seems highly probable, that the Esquimaux are their descend- 

 ants, tamed into apathy and cowardice, perhaps, by sustaining greater 

 privations. They have no tradition of a northern land, but say that 

 die sea on their northern frontier is frozen ten months in the year, 

 and that nothing but ice-mountains are visible ; that the sea breaks 

 up in August and September, but not so as to admit the passage of 

 vessels ; and that the intermediate lands between themselves and the 

 sea, are mountainous, barren, and deeply covered with snow. These 

 representations, corresponding v/ith ascertained facts relating to the 

 Arctic regions on other meridians, and the additional fact, that tlie 

 Baron Wrangle found a continuous coast around Shelatskoi Noss, 

 strengthen the probability that an undivided ocean stretches across 

 the Pole, and that the north coasts of Europe and Asia, form a land 

 shore upon its margin, within the Arctic circle, from North Cape, in 

 Lapland, eastward to Bhering's sti'aits. 



OKOTSK. 



This grand division of Siberia includes Kamschatka witliin its 

 government, and has its capital on the sea of Okotsk, in 60° N. lat^ 

 140° E. long. From the river Kolyma, S. S. W. to Okotsk, is 

 nearly two thousand miles. The country is diversified with snow 

 clad mountains, overflowed morasses, decayed forests, frozen lakes, 

 and rapid and dangerous rivers. The town has been erected princi- 

 pally by the Russian American Company, the head officer of which 

 resides there. Meat and fish are plentiful, but bread is dear, and 

 vegetables scarce and inferior. Forests of timber in the vicinity of 

 Okotsk, make it an advantageous place for a dock yard, and sub- 

 stantial vessels are built and fitted out to transport goods and pro- 

 visions to Idgiga, and Kamschatka. Ships arriving from America, 

 bring most valuable cargoes of furs to Okotsk, but the province may 

 be termed a dreary waste, from the border of its principal city, to 

 the river Anadyr, on the north east confines of Asia. 



KAMSCHATKA. 



The stormy sea of Okotsk is navigated with difficulty, owing, in 

 some measure, to deficient surveys. It divides the city and the 



