parent ease: we, however, could not effect it by any means without assistance; and, during about three hours travelling, I dare say that we fell near twenty times. The top of the saddle is square and flat, projecting a few inches over the sides of the deer; the seat is secured by drawing up the calves of the legs toward the thighs, and clinging fast to the projecting parts of the saddle, which at first causes astonishing pain to the thighs: by the third day, however, I became a very expert rider; the shipbuilder could not manage it at all, and went for the most part on foot: of course my travelling was not very expeditious.'

Mr. S. pursued his journey by the Amicon (the chief source of the Ingigirka), and reached Virchni Kovima on the 28th of September, after having suffered innumerable hardships in his round-about road. Mr. Bering had arrived on the 4th, and Captain Billings on the 8th: but the whole party, at the time of Mr. S.'s arrival, had not reached their place of destination. The writer gives a short description of the Tungoose, of their customs, manners, &c. According to him, they are independent, contented, resolute, and happy; regardless of heat and cold, fond of a rambling life, and so averse to permanence that they do not suffer their tents to remain six days in the same place; the reason which they assign for this restleness being, that their tents contract a disagreeable smell by remaining long in one spot.

When Mr. S. arrived at Virchni Kovima, the frozen rivers. supported horses, and the thermometer was 18° below the freezing point of Reaumur.

The author was rejoiced at rejoining his party: but the circumstances under which they met were not favourable: no provisions had arrived from the contractor; few could be procured from the inhabitants, who, consisting of 8 males, had laid in provision sufficient only for their own consumption; and scarcely any fresh fish could now be caught. Distressing as these circumstances were, preparations for building a vessel of 50 feet keel were continued with great alacrity; and in a few days the party were relieved by arrivals of flour and butter, and by the fortunate capture of 145 large Nalime. In the month of November, the cold became so intense that no work could be performed; for the hatchets, when struck against the wood, broke like glass. We transcribe some of the effects mentioned in the thermometrical remarks given by Mr. S. for 8 days.

Nov. 22. thermometer 39 at 6 P. M. 10 ounces of mercury in a stopped phial froze in 2 hours.

Nov. 23. thermometer 30 for half an hour, during which sime the mercury was thawing.

Nov. 27. 8-9. A. M. thermometer 40; a sealed bottle with Astracan brandy, exposed to the frost, thickened very much, but was not frozen.

Nov. 28. 12. M. thermometer 324, mercury thawed.

In a subsequent part, Mr. S. says that, the thermometer sinking to 43°, the Astracan brandy was frozen.

At the beginning of February, the cold abated: but the scurvy gained ground, for which a decoction of Pinus Cembra, with sweetwort and quassia, was used with success. On the 1st of April, Captain Billings pitched his astronomical tent. In May, every thing was going forwards with great success, when a fire broke out in the mechanic's hut, and the vessels were saved with difficulty, but all the brandy for the use of the expedition was consumed. On the 17th of May, the largest vessel, named the Pallas in honour of the great Russian naturalist, was launched; on the 19th, the smaller was also committed to the water; and on the 25th, the vessels sailed for Seredni Kovima, where they arrived on the 28th.

At the Omolon summer huts, the expedition met with Major Shmaileff, and two interpreters for the Tshutski and Koriak dialects. Major S. had accomplished the object of his journey, and completely reconciled the Tshutski to the Russians. Pursuing the course of the Kovima, the vessels arrived at its mouth on the 21st of June. Here Captain B., wishing to make his observations, took his astronomical tent to land; and while Mr. S. was accompanying him to land in a small boat, a curious phænomenon of astronomical refraction was observed. The hull of the Pallas (Captain B.'s ship) first seemed to sink, and then it totally disappeared: but, as the boat was rowed farther from her, she again became visible, huil, rigging, &c. but of an immense size, and considerably above the horizon. The weather was hazy, and the sun rather obscured.

Being prevented by the cloudy weather from making any observations, the Captain stood out into the Icy Sea in a direction North-north-east, but was soon compelled by the ice to return. On the 1st of July, he again shaped his course North, and was carried by the current two points to the West. On account of the ice, however, and of having lost sight of her companion, the Pallas stood again to the South: the ice was not so compact as to stop the vessel; and from the circumstance of shoaling water, Mr. S. was of opinion that they should soon have fallen in with some continent or island, if they had pur sued their Northern course: but Captain B. was apprehensive of being hemmed in, and fearful for the smaller vessel, and therefore returned. The ships having rejoined, they again, on the

B 4

18th

18th, steered North-east; and after having proceeded 30 miles, Captain B., finding that they were surrounded by ice, altered his course and resolved to give up the attempt. Thus ended that part of the Russian expedition which was to explore the Icy Sea. At the end of the detail of this excursion, the author subjoins these remarks:

The coast of the Icy Sea is moderately high, formed by projecting promontories and shallow bays, exposed to every wind except the south. The mountains are covered in different places with snow; which melting, produces small torrents rushing into the sea. They are composed of granite, quartz, and a hard black stone; and produce moss; a kind of vetch, the root of which is edible; creeping willow; and birch, not exceeding ten inches in height. The shores are covered with drift wood nearly to Barannoi Kamen, but no far. ther east. Along the shore are numerous remains of huts, and places where fires have been, which, in all probability, have been made and left by different hunters.

The quadrupeds that we saw were rein-deer, pretty numerous; bears, but none white; wolves, foxes, stone fox, wild sheep, and the whisling marmot. The birds were, gulls of several sorts, ravens, hawks, black-headed buntings, snow-larks, a few partridges, geese, ducks, and divers.

The productions of the sea are very few. We frequently hauled the seine, but only once caught the seld (herring) and muksoon (a small species of salmon). We saw several belluga, seals, and one whale, but no traces of shell-fish of any kind. The water was fresh to a considerable distance; the ice we frequently tried, but found it brackish, with neither ebb nor flow. The currents were very irregular, seldom setting any one way longer than the wind blew, at the unsettled rates of half a mile, a mile, and three miles and a half, per hour,

The atmosphere was cold and chilly, the greatest heat that we experienced being while at anchor close in with the land in Wolves' Bay on the 15th July, when we had several claps of thunder. We had a gentle south-east breeze, and calms; and while the wind blew, the thermometer rose to 14° and 16° above the freezing point of Reaumur. During the intervening calms, it sunk to 6°, 7, and 8°. The coldest day was the 12th July, the thermometer being then 2o below the freezing point. It frequently indicated 1° above o at the time when our rigging was incrusted with ice.

The fogs here are very remarkable, continually hovering above the ice at no great height. At a distance they appear like islands in a haze; sometimes like vast columns of smoke. Once, in particular, we thought that the Tshutski had made signal-fires for us; but on a nearer approach we discovered our mistake.

I observed the horizon to be most clear in the coldest weather, and am inclined to think that this navigation ought to be undertaken about the first of August. The more success is to be expected, from the testimony of the hunters and others who visit these parts, that the ice never breaks up until St. Elias' day, the 20th July,

Old

Old Stile (or the 31st July New Stile)" and I think it necessary to remark here, that my dates are all Old Stile, according to the custom of Russia.

The estuary of the river Kovima at Shalauroff's winter buildings, by exact reckonings of bearings, course, and time, from places where observations were taken in the Icy Sea, and from Neizsni Ostrog, forwards and backwards, I fix in latitude 69° 16', longitude 166 10; variation of the compass 17° 30' east.'

In the relation of the voyage up the Kovima, Mr. S. gives an account of the fish which that river contains, of the beasts and birds that frequent its neighbourhood, and of the trees which grow near its banks. The account is valuable, although probably not so full as a naturalist, with Mr. S.'s opportunities, would have made it; the author very properly and modestly confessing his deficiency of knowlege in botany, mineralogy, &c.

On the high sandy shores of the Kovima, at a great depth, Mammont's (Mammoth's) teeth (tusks) are discovered in great abundance: the largest that Mr. S. found on the shores of the Icy Sea was in length 8 feet, 7 inches (French measurement) circumference of thickest part, (at 22 inches from the root,) 17 inches, and its weight was 115 lbs. avoirdupoise.

Pursuing their journey, the party arrived at Jakutsk on Nov. 13. where they met with Mr. Ledyard, who had formerly been acquainted with Captain Billings, when they were together with Cook. His intention was to attend the expedition to the American continent, for the purpose of exploring it on foot; and he went back with Captain Billings and Mr. S. to Irkutsk, where (as the public have already learnt from the accounts published by the African Association) he was arrested by -order of the Empress of Russia.

While Mr. Sauer was at Jakutsk, he made particular inquiries concerning the travels of Lachoff to the Icy Sea. Lachoff referred him to Protodiakonoff, who in 1770 accompanied Lachoff from his winter buildings at the estuary of the Yana to Swatoi Noss, The account of their observations is thus given:

They saw an immense herd of deer going to the south, and observed that their traces were from the north across the Icy Sea, Lachoff resolved, if possible, to find out whence they came, and in the beginning of April set out very early in the morring, with his nart drawn by dogs. Towards evening he arrived at an island, 70 versts from the promontory, in a due north direction, where he passed the night, and the next day proceeded farther, the traces of the deer serving as a guide. About noon he arrived at a second island, 20 versts distant, and in the same direction. The traces coming still farther from the north, he continued his route. At a small distance

from

from the second island, he found the ice so rugged and mountainous, as to prevent bis proceeding with dogs. He observed no land; and therefore, after passing the night on the ice, he returned, and with great difficulty, for want of provisions for his dogs, regained Swatoi Noss. He represented his discovery to the Chancery of Yakutsk, and the intelligence was forwarded to St. Petersburgh. The Empress Catherine II. called the islands by the name of the discoverer, and gave him the exclusive right of collecting ivory and hunting animals in this place, and in any other that he might thereafter dis

cover.

In 1773, he went with five workmen in a boat to the islands, and continued across straits, where he found the sea very salt, and a current setting to the west. He soon saw land to the north, the weather being pretty clear, and arrived on what he called the third island. The shore was covered with drift wood. The land was very mountainous, and seemingly of great extent; but no wood was seen growing, nor did he observe the traces of any human being. He found some tusks of the mammont, saw the tracks of animals, and returned (without making any other discovery) to the first island, where Lachoff built a hut of the drift wood, and passed the winter. One of his companions left a kettle and a palma on the third island.

This was reckoned a discovery of some importance, and the land surveyor Chvoinoff received orders from the Chancery of Yakutsk to accompany Lachoff to this farthest land, and take an exact survey of the same. In 1775, on the 9th February, he left Yakutik, arrived on the 26th March at Ust Yansk Zemovia, or winter huts, at the estuary of the Yana. He immediately proceeded across the bay to Swatoi Noss, which is 400 versts from the discharge of river, in a direction north-north-east. On the 6th May he arrived as the first island, which is 150 versts long, and 80 versts broad, on the widest part, and 20 versts on the narrowest. In the middle is a lake of considerable extent, hut very shallow, and the borders of which are steep. The whole island, except three or four inconsiderable rocky mountains, is composed of ice and sand; and, as the shores fall, from the heat of the sun's thawing them, the tusks and bones of the mammont are found in great abundance. To use Chvoinoff's own expression, the island is formed of the bones of this extraordinary animal, mixed with the horns and heads of the buffalo, or something like it, and some horns of the rhinoceros ; now and then, but very rarely, they find a thin bone, very straight, of considerable length, and formed like a screw.

The second island is 20 versts distant from this; low, and without drift wood; 50 versts in length, and from 20 to 30 versts broad. Here also the tusks and other bones are found; and great numbers of the arctic foxes are to be met with on both. The surface is a bed of moss of considerable thickness, producing a few low plants and flowers, such as grow about the borders of the ley Sea. This moss may be stripped off as you would take a carpet from a floor, and the earth underneath appears like clear ice, and never thaws: these spots are called Kaltuse.

The