448 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
coarse and brutish. The shipwrecked men were all murdered. 
Only the woman was saved, was very well treated, and taken 
round the whole country, and shown to the natives as something 
rare and remarkable. So she came at last to the Kargauts, 
a race living on the American coast at Behring’s Straits, whence 
she found means to escape to her own tribe. This woman told 
her countrymen much about her travels and adventures; among 
other things she said that she had been in a great land which 
lay north of Kolyutschin Island, stretched far to the west, and 
was probably connected with America. This land was inhabited 
by several races of men; those living in the west resembled the 
Chukches in every respect, but those living in the east were so 
wild and brutish, that they scarcely deserved to be called ihen. 
The whole account, both of the woman herself and of the 
narrators of the tradition, is mixed up with so many improbable 
adventures, that it would scarcely be deserving of any attention 
were it not remarkable for its correspondence with the history 
of Krachoj.”^ 
When Wrangel wrote that, he did not believe in the existence 
of the land which is to be found set out on his map in 177° E.L. 
and 71° N.L., and which, afterwards discovered by the English¬ 
man Kellet, according to the saying, turns a non lucendo, 
obtained the name of Wrangel Land. Now we know that the 
land spoken of by tradition actually exists, and therefore there 
is much that even tells in favour of its extending as far as to 
the archipelago on the north coast of America. 
With this fresh light thrown upon it, the old Chukch woman’s 
story ought to furnish a valuable hint for future exploratory 
voyages in the sea north of Behring’s Straits, and an important 
contribution towards forming a judgment of the fate which 
has befallen the American Jeannette expedition, of which, while 
this is being written, accounts are still wanting.^ 
1 Wrangel’s Eeise^ Th. 2, Berlin, 1839, p. 220. 
2 According to a paper in Deutsche Geografische Blatter, B. IV. p. 54, 
Captain E. Dallniann, in 1866, as commander of the Havai schooner W. G. 
Talbot, not only saw but landed on Wrangel Laud. As Captain Dallmann 
of recent years has been in pretty close contact with a large number of 
geographers, and communications from him have been previously inserted 
