CHAPTER XX 
RUSSIAN ARCTIC DISCOVERIES 
The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in 
Arctic discovery. If we look at a map of 130 years ago, 
such an one as is used to illustrate the book of Daines 
Barrington or Scoresby's Arctic Regions, we shall see the 
whole continuous coast line delineated in the Siberian 
quadrant, while in the American quadrant there is nothing 
beyond Icy Cape but the mouths of the Coppermine and 
Mackenzie rivers. Moreover, in the achievement of their 
discoveries, the Russians often had to overcome even 
greater dangers and hardships than their fellow explorers 
in the other quadrants. 
In the earlier period of the occupation of Siberia 
by the Russians, the Arctic portions were discovered by 
Cossack leaders engaged in the reduction of northern 
native tribes, the Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tunguses, and later 
the Tchuktches. As early as 1610 a Cossack had reached 
the mouth of the Yenisei. In 1636 the Lena and the 
mouth of the Yana were discovered, and by 1644 the 
Cossack Stadukhin was on the banks of the Kolyma, and 
gave the first account of the Tchuktches. Two years 
afterwards Issai Ignatieff and some fur-hunters made the 
first attempt to navigate beyond the mouth of the 
Kolyma. 
Simon Deshneff was the most enterprising of the 
Cossack pioneers. With another Cossack named Anku- 
dinoff, he built two small vessels in the Kolyma and 
faced the icy Siberian sea. Ankudinoff was wrecked, but 
Deshneff fought a battle with the Tchuktches, and navi- 
gated his little craft through Bering Strait into the Gulf 
of Anadyr. For six years Deshneff was a prominent 
figure in establishing Russian ascendancy in those distant 
regions. He is last heard of in 1653, but his ultimate 
fate is unknown. 
