20 2 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. Having now paffed Beering’s Strait, and taken our final 
« ^ uly ‘ leave of the North Eaft coaft of Afia, it may not he impro¬ 
per, on this occafion, to ftate the grounds on which we 
have ventured to adopt two general conclufions refpedling 
its extent, in oppofition to the opinions of Mr. Muller. The 
firft, that the promontory named Eaft Cape is actually the 
Eafternmoft point of that quarter of the globe; or, in 
other words, that no part of the continent extends in lon¬ 
gitude beyond 190° 22' Eaft: the fecond, that the latitude 
of the North Eafternmoft extremity falls to the Southward 
of 70° North. With refpedt to the former, if fuch land 
exift, it muft neceftarily be to the North of latitude 69°, 
where the difcoveries made in the prefent voyage termi¬ 
nate ; and, therefore, the probable diredtion of the coaft, 
beyond this point, is the queftion I ftiall endeavour, in the 
fir ft place, to inveftigate. 
As the Ruffian is the only nation that has hitherto navi¬ 
gated thefe feas, all our information refpedling the iitua- 
tion of the coaft to the Northward of Cape North, muft ne- 
ceffarily be derived from the charts and journals of the 
perfons who have been employed, at various times, in afcer- 
taining the limits of that empire; and thefe are, for the 
moft part, fo imperfedt, fo confufed, and contradidlory, that 
it is not eafy to form any diftindt idea of their pretended, 
much lefs to colled! the amount of their real difcoveries. 
It is on this account, that the extent and form of the penin- 
fula, inhabited by the Tfchutfki, ftill remains a point on 
which the Ruffian geographers are much divided. Mr. Mul¬ 
ler, in his map, publifhed in the year 1754, fuppofes this 
country to extend toward the North Eaft, to the 75 0 of lati¬ 
tude, and in longitude 190° Eaft of Greenwich, and to ter¬ 
minate in a round Cape, which he calls Tfchukotfkoi Nofs, 
2 To 
