XIII.] 
ISLANDS IN THE SIBERIAN POLAR SEA. 
171 
order to reach this land by sea it was necessary to start from 
the coast which the Schelags inhabited, because the sea was less 
covered by ice there. 
As Ainossov could not reach his goal by sea he travelled 
thither the same year, in November, 1724, over the ice, hut his 
description of the land differs widely from that of his prede¬ 
cessor, and Muller appears to entertain great doubts of the 
truthfulness of the narrative.^ On the ground of a map con¬ 
structed by the Cossack, Colonel Schestakov, who, however, ac¬ 
cording to Muller, could neither read nor write, this new land was 
introduced into Delisle and Buache’s map, with the addition 
that the Schelag Kopai lived there, and had there been taken 
prisoner by the Russians. This is so far incorrect, as Kopai did 
not live on any island, but on the mainland, and never was 
prisoner with the Russians, although after having paid tribute 
to them, he tired of doing so, and killed some of Amossov’s 
people, after which no more was heard of him. Muller com¬ 
plains loudly of the incorrect statement regarding Kopai, but 
the learned academician commits a much greater mistake, inas- 
mitch as he considers that he ought to leave the numerous 
accounts of hunters and Cossacks about land and islands in the 
Siberian Polar Sea completely out of account. All these lands 
are therefore left out of the map published by the Petersburg 
Academy in the year 1758.^ It is in this respect much more 
^ But we ought to remember that the oldest accounts of islands in the 
Polar Sea relate to no fewer than four different lands, viz., 1. The New 
Siberian Islands lying off the mouth of the Lena and Svjatoinos; 2. 
The Bear Islands; 3. Wrangel Land; 4. The north-western part of 
America. Contradictions in accounts of the islands in the Polar Sea 
probably depend on the uninhabited and treeless New Siberian^ islands 
being confused with America, which, in comparison with North Siberia, is 
. thickly peopled and well wooded, with the small Bear Islands, with 
Wrangel Land, &c. 
^ Nouvelle carte des decouvertes faites par des vaisseaux russiens aux 
cotes inconnues de VAmerique Septentrionale avec les pais adiacentes, dressee 
siir des memoires aiithentiques des ceux qui ont assiste a ces decouvertes 
