272 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. mura, ftretching to the 78° of latitude, which the good for- 
T ulv g 
tune of no Engle voyager has hitherto doubled. 
It is, however, contended, thas there are firong reafons 
for believing, that the fea is more free from ice, the nearer 
we approach to the pole; and that all the ice we faw In the 
lower latitudes, was formed in the great rivers of Siberia 
and America, the breaking up of which had filled the in¬ 
termediate fea. But even if that fuppofition be true, it is 
equally fo, that there can be no accefs to thofe open feas, 
unlefs this great mafs of ice is fo far difiolved in the fum- 
mer, as to admit of a fhip’s getting through it. If this be 
the fa6t, we have taken a wrong time of the year for at¬ 
tempting to find this pafiage, which fhould have been ex¬ 
plored in April and May, before the rivers were broken up. 
But how many reafons may be given againfi: fuch a fuppo¬ 
fition? Our experience at Saint Peter and Saint Paul en¬ 
abled us to judge what might be expected farther North; 
and upon that ground, we had reafon to doubt, whether 
the continents might not in winter be even joined by the 
ice; and this agreed with the ftories we heard in Kamtf- 
chatka, that on the Siberian coaft, they go out from the 
fhore in winter, upon the ice, to greater diftances than the 
breadth of the fea is, in fome parts, from one continent to 
the other. 
In the depofitions referred to above, the following remark¬ 
able circumftance is related. Speaking of the land feen 
from the Tfchukotfkoi Nofs, it is faid, “ that in fummer 
time they fail in one day to the land in baidares, a fort of 
vefiel conftrudfed of whale-bone, and covered with feal- 
Ikins; and in winter time, going fwift with rein-deer, the 
journey may likewife be made in a day.” A fufficient 
proof, 
