Quitting the White Sea, and coasting the island of Candenos and the northern coasts of Russia, the ocean forms a small arm in the land at the mouth of the river Petzora. This arm, which is about 40 leagues long, by 8 or 10 broad, is rather a mass of water formed by the river than a gulph of the sea, and also has but little saltness. The land there forms a projecting cape, terminated by the small islands of Maurice and of Orange; and between this promontory and the lands which border the Strait of Waigat to the south, there is a small gulph about 30 leagues depth inland. This gulph belongs to the ocean, and is not formed by the land waters. We afterwards meet with Waigat's Strait, which is nearly under the 70th degree of north latitude. This strait is not more than 8 or 10 leagues long, and communicates with the sea which waters the northern coasts of Siberia. As this strait is shut up by the ice the greatest part of the year, it is very difficult to get into the sea beyond it. The passage has been attempted in vain by a great number of navigators, and those who fortunately passed it have left us no exact charts of that sea, which they have termed the Pacific Ocean. All that appears by the most recent charts, and by Senex's globe of 1739, is, that this sea might be entirely mediterranean, and not communicating with the great sea of Tartary, for it appears to be enclosed and bounded on the south by the country of the Samoides, which is at present well known, and which extends from the Straits of Waigat to the river Jenisca; on the east it is bounded by Jelmorland, on the west by Nova Zembla; and although we are not acquainted with the extent of this sea to the north and north-east, yet as there does not appear any interruption of the lands, there is great probability of its being only a mediterranean, and bounded by land on that side: what indeed proves this is, that by leaving Waigat's Strait you may coast Nova-Zembla all along its western and northern coasts as far as Cape Desire; that after having past this cape, keeping along the coast to the east of Nova Zembla, you arrive at a small gulph, which is about the 75th country of Jelmorland was discovered in 1664, which is only a few leagues distant from Nova Zembla, so that the only land which has not yet been discovered is a small spot near this little gulph; and this part is perhaps not thirty leagues long; so that if the Pacific Sea communicated with the ocean it must be at this little gulph, which is the only way by which they can join; and as this small gulph is in the 75th degree, even if the communication should exist, we must always keep five degrees towards the north to gain the great sea. It is evident, therefore, that if we would acquire the northern route to China, it would be much better to pass by the north of Nova Zembla, at the 77th or 78th degree, where the sea is more open, and has less ice, than to attempt the road through the icy strait of Waigat, with the