gave name to
Sledge Island, it appears that the inhabitants of the adjacent
continents visit occasionally the small islands lying between them,
probably for the conveniency of fishing, or in pursuit of furs.

It appears also from Popoff's deposition, which I shall have occasion
to speak of more particularly hereafter, that the general resemblance
between the people, who are seen in these islands, and the Tschutski,
was sufficient to lead Deshneff into the error of imagining them to be
the same. "Opposite to the Noss," he says, "is an island of moderate
size, without trees, whose inhabitants _resemble in their exterior the
Tschutski, although they are quite another nation_; not numerous,
indeed, yet speaking their own particular language." Again, "One may
go in a baidare from the Noss to the island in half a day; beyond is a
great continent, which can be discovered from the island in serene
weather. When the weather is good, one may go from the island to the
continent in a day. _The inhabitants of the continent are similar to
the Tschutski, excepting that they speak another language_."

[26] I mention the more early Russian navigators, because Beering, whom we
have also followed, and after him all the late Russian geographers,
have given this name to the S.E. cape of the peninsula of the
Tschutski, which was formerly called the Anadirskoi Noss.

[27] It ought, however, to be recollected, that though Shalauroff is
conceived never to have doubled Shelatskoi Noss, he nevertheless does
not appear to have considered there was any particular difficulty in
doing so. In his first attempt to sail from the Kovyma to the Eastern
Ocean, he was necessitated, by contrary winds, and the too far
advanced season of the year, to seek for a watering-place, before
having reached that cape. In the following year, again, he was
frustrated by want of provisions, and a mutiny of his crew, which
forced him to return to the Lena. The progress of his last enterprise
is somewhat uncertain, as neither he nor any of his crew ever
returned. But there are tolerably good reasons for believing, that, at
all events, he had surmounted the navigation of this cape, if not for
the opinion, that he actually accomplished the chief object of his
voyage, by bringing his vessel to the mouth of the Anadir, where, it
is on the whole,