As It Was Perfectly Calm When
He Reached This Inlet, He Resolved To Go On Shore, And Examine From Some
Eminence The Direction Of The Coast.
"We landed," he observes, "without
difficulty, near a hill, which I immediately ascended; from the summit I
could no where perceive land in the strait:
The high mountains to the north
either formed islands, or were a coast by themselves; for that the two
coasts could not be connected together was evident, even from the very
great difference between this very low and that remarkably high land. It
was my intention to continue the survey of the coast in the boats, but a
number of baydares coming to us along the coast from the east, withheld
me." He afterwards had an interview with the Americans who came in these
baydares: he found that they prized tobacco very highly, and that they
received this and other European goods from the natives of the opposite
coast of Asia. It was probably the first time in their lives that these
Americans had seen Europeans. They were of the middle size; robust and
healthy; ugly and dirty; with small eyes, and very high cheek bones: "they
bore holes on each side of their mouths, in which they wear morse bones,
ornamented with blue glass beads, which give them a most frightful
appearance. Their dresses, which are made of skins, are of the same cut as
the Parka, in Kamtschatka; only that there they reach to the feet, and here
hardly cover the knee: besides this, they wear pantaloons, and small half
boots of seal skins."
The latitude of this place, or rather of the ship's anchorage, at the time
this survey was made, was 66 deg. 42' 30", and the longitude 164 deg. 12' 50".
There were several circumstances which induced Kotzebue to hope that he had
at length found the channel which led to the Atlantic: nothing was seen but
sea to the eastward, and a strong current ran to the north-east. Under
these circumstances, thirteen days were occupied in examining the shores of
this opening; but no outlet was discovered, except one to the south-east,
which seemed to communicate with Norton Sound, and a channel on the western
side, which of course could not be the one sought for. Kotzebue, however,
remarks, "I certainly hope that this sound may lead to important
discoveries next year; and though a north-east passage may not with
certainty be depended on, yet I believe I shall be able to penetrate much
farther to the east, as the land has very deep indentures." The name of
Kotzebue's Sound was given to this inlet. Next year he returned to
prosecute his discovery; but in consequence of an accident which happened
to the ship, and a very dangerous blow which he received at the same time,
he abandoned the attempt.
That there is an opening, either by Kotzebue's Inlet or near to it, to the
Frozen Ocean, is probable, not only from the circumstances we have
mentioned of an opening and a strong current to the north-east having been
observed, but also from other circumstances noticed in the account of this
voyage. This current brings large quantities of drift wood into Kotzebue's
Sound: and in the breaking up of the ice in the sea of Kamschatka, the
icebergs and fields of ice do not drift, as in the Atlantic, to the south,
nor do they drive to the Atlantic islands, but into the strait to the
north. The direction of the current was always north-east in Behring's
Straits; and it was so strong and rapid, as to carry the ship fifty miles
in twenty-four hours; that is, above two miles an hour. On the Asiatic side
of the strait it ran at the rate of three miles an hour; and even with a
fresh north wind, it ran equally strong from the south. The inference drawn
by Kotzebue is as follows: "The constant north-east direction of the
current in Behring's Straits, proves that the water meets with no
opposition, and consequently a passage must exist, though perhaps not
adapted to navigation. Observations have long been made, that the current
in Baffin's Bay runs to the south; and thus no doubt can remain that the
mass of water which flows into Behring's Straits takes its course round
America, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the Ocean."
In 1819 the Russian government sent out another expedition, whose object
was to trace the continent of America to the northward and eastward. In
July, 1820, they reached Behring's Straits, and were supposed to have
passed them in that year; in the winter they returned to some of the
Russian settlements on the coast of America: what they have since done or
discovered is not known.
Such is the result of what has hitherto been discovered by sea, with
respect to the contiguity of Asia and America, the northern parts of these
continents, and the probability of a passage from the Pacific to the
Atlantic.
Very lately some attempts have been made to reach the north-eastern
extremity of Asia by land. "In February, 1821, Baron Wrangel, an officer of
great merit and of considerable science, left his head-quarters in the
Nishney Kolyma, to settle by astronomical observations the position of
Shatatzkoi Noss, or the North-east Cape of Asia, which he found to lie in
latitude 70 deg. 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed in the
maps. Having crossed this point, he undertook the hazardous enterprize of
crossing the ice of the Polar Sea, on sledges drawn by dogs, in search of
the land said to have been discovered in 1762 to the northward of the
Kolyma, He travelled directly north eighty miles, without perceiving any
thing but a field of interminable ice, the surface of which had now become
so broken and uneven, as to prevent a further prosecution of his journey.
He had gone far enough, however, to ascertain that no such land had ever
been discovered." (Quarterly Review, No.
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