162 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
east of the Kolyma. They brought home walrus tusks from 
the island, which was of considerable size, and the hunters 
supposed “ that it was a continuation of Novaya Zemlya, which 
is visited by people from Mesen.” Wrangel is of opinion that 
this account refers to no other than Krestovski Island, one of 
the Bear Islands. This, however, appears to me to be im¬ 
probable. It is much more likely that it refers partly to the 
New Siberian Islands, partly to Wrangel Land, and perhaps 
even to America. That the Russians themselves had not then 
discovered Ljachoff’s, or as it was then also called, Blischni 
Island, which lies so near the mainland, and is so high that it 
is impossible to avoid seeing it when one in clear weather sails 
past Svjatoinos, which lies east of the Yana, is a proof that at 
that time they had not sailed along the coast between the 
mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka. Finally, a great river, 
the Pogytscha, was spoken of, which could be reached in three 
or four days’ sailing eastward from the mouth of the Kolyma. 
This was the first account which reached the conquerors of 
Siberia of the great river Anadyr which falls into the Pacific. 
These acccounts were sufficient to incite the Cossacks and 
hunters to new expeditions. The beginning was made by IsAl 
Ignatiev from Mesen, .who, along with several hunters, tra¬ 
velled down the Kol 3 rma in 1646 to the Polar Sea, and then 
along the coast eastwards. The sea was full of ice, but next 
the land there was an open channel, in which the explorers 
sailed two days. They then came to a bay, near whose shore 
they anchored. Here the Russians had their first meeting with 
the Chukches, to which reference has already been made. 
Hence Ignatiev returned to the Kolyma; and the booty was 
considered so rich and his account of his journey so promising, 
that preparations were immediately made in order next year 
to send off a new maritime expedition fitted out on a larger 
scale to the coast of the Polar Sea. 
This time Feodot Alexejev from Kolmogor was chief of 
