"RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES.――In the year 1820, a journey of discovery, by land, was ordered by the government, to explore the extreme north and north-east of Asia.――Lieutenants Wrangle and Anjou, of the navy, were chosen for this expedition. After having made the necessary preparations, they departed from Neukolyma, in the north-eastern part of Siberia, on the 19th of Feb. 1821, in sledges drawn by dogs, when the cold was thirty-two degrees Reaumur, in order to ascertain the position of Schehaladshoi-Noss, which captain Burney conjectured might be an isthmus, joining Asia with the continent of America. The travellers succeeded in determining the whole coast astronomically, going themselves entirely round the coast, and proceeding a day's journey farther to the west; thus convincing themselves that Asia and America are not united there by an isthmus. On the 13th of March, the expedition returned to Neukolyma. On the 22d of March, Mr. Wrangle undertook another journey, likewise on sledges drawn by dogs, with ten companions, in the direction to the North Pole, in order to look for the great continent which is supposed to exist there. The principal obstacle they met with, was thin ice, which being broken to pieces by continued storms, was piled up in mountains, and rendered farther progress impossible. At a bear hunt, which the company undertook, they observed a sudden bursting of the ice, accompanied with a dreadful noise resembling thunder. On their journey back, which the travellers were obliged to make without accomplishing their object, they surveyed the bear islands, and after an absence of thirty-eight days, arrived safely at Neukolyma on the 28th April, where they are to remain for the year 1822, and then to continue their researches." CHAPTER X. _A short Biographical sketch of Captain Symmes; with some observations on the treatment which he has met with in the advancement of his Theory._ John Cleves Symmes, the author of the Theory of Concentric Spheres, is the son of Timothy Symmes, of the state of New-Jersey, whose father's name was also Timothy, and who was the son of the Rev. Thomas Symmes, of Bradford, who graduated at Harvard college, in 1698. Mr. Elliot, publisher of the New-England Biographical Dictionary, at Boston, in the year 1809, makes honourable mention of his name. Timothy Symmes, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, had but two sons; the one, John Cleves Symmes, well known as the father and founder of the first settlements in the Miami country; and the other, Timothy, the father of our Theorist, and from whom the present family of Symmes, in the Miami country, are descended.