A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
These two circumstances are of so striking and unequivocal a nature, that
they appear to me conclusive on the point of the Tschukotskoi Noss,
notwithstanding there are others of a more doubtful kind, which we have
from the same authority, and which now remain to be considered. "To go,"
says Deshneff in another account, "from the Kovyma to the Anadir, a great
promontory must be doubled, which stretches very far into the sea;" and
afterwards, "this promontory stretches between N. and N.E." It was probably
from the expressions contained in these passages, that Mr Muller was
induced to give the country of the Tschutski the form we find in his map;
but had he been acquainted with the situation of the east cape, as
ascertained by Captain Cook, and the remarkable coincidence between it and
this promontory or isthmus, (for it must be observed, that Deshneff appears
to be all along speaking of the same thing), in the circumstances already
mentioned, I am confident he would not have thought those expressions,
merely by themselves, of sufficient weight to warrant him in extending the
north-eastern extremity of Asia, either so far to the north or to the
eastward. For, after all, these expressions are not irreconcilable with the
opinion we have adopted, if we suppose Deshneff to have taken these
bearings from the small bight which lies to the westward of the cape.
The deposition of the Cossack Popoff, taken at the Anadirskoi ostrog; in
the year 1711, seems to have been the next authority on which Mr Muller has
proceeded; and beside these two, I am not acquainted with any other. This
Cossack, together with several others, was sent by land to demand tribute
from the independent Tschutski tribes, who lived about the Noss. The first
circumstance in the account of this journey that can lead to the situation
of Tschukotskoi Noss, is its distance from Anadirsk; and this is stated to
be ten weeks' journey with loaded rein-deer; on which account, it is added,
their day's journey was but very small. It is impossible to conclude much
from so vague an account; but, as the distance between the east cape and
the ostrog is upward of two hundred leagues in a straight line, and
therefore may be supposed to allow twelve or fifteen miles a day, its
situation cannot be reckoned incompatible with Popoff's calculation. The
next circumstance mentioned in this deposition is, that their route lay by
the foot of a rock called Matkol, situated at the bottom of a great gulf.
This gulf Muller supposes to be the bay he had laid down between latitude
66 deg. and 72 deg.; and accordingly places the rock Matkol in the centre of it;
but it appears equally probable, even if we had not so many reasons to
doubt the existence of that bay, that it might be some part of the gulf of
Anadir, which they would undoubtedly touch upon in their road from the
ostrog to the east cape.
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