Note 177 — PART III. APPENDIX I. & II. CONTAINING SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNTS OF THE RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES, &c. &c.

These islands are Medviedkie Ostrova, or the Bear Islands; they are also called Kreffstoffskie Ostrova, because they lie opposite the mouth of the small river Krestova. For a long time vague reports were propagated that the continent of America was stretched along the Frozen Ocean, very near the coasts of Siberia; and some persons pretended to have discovered its shore not far from the rivers Kovyma and Krestova. But the falsity of these reports was proved by an expedition made in 1764, by some Russian officers sent by Denys Ivanovitch Tschitcherin, governor of Tobolsk. These officers went in winter, when the sea was frozen, in sledges drawn by dogs, from the mouth of the Krestova. They found nothing but five small rocky islands, since called the Bear Islands, which were quite uninhabited; but some traces were found of former inhabitants, namely, the ruins of huts. They observed also on one of the islands a kind of wooden stage built of drift-wood, which seemed as if it had been intended for defence. As far as they durst venture out over the Frozen Sea, no land could be seen, but high mountains of ice obstructed their passage, and forced them to return. See the map of this expedition upon the chart of Shalauroff's voyage prefixed to this number.