"
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.
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