From what I have stated it follows that, thanks to the fondness of the hunters and Cossacks for adventurous, exploratory expeditions, the current ideas regarding the distribution of the land and the courses of the rivers in north-eastern Asia were in the main correct. But, in consequence of want of knowledge of, or of doubts regarding, Deschnev's discoveries, there prevailed an uncertainty whether Asia at its north-east extremity was connected with America by a small neck of land, in the same way as it is with Africa, or as North and South America are connected with each other, a view which, in consequence of the unscientific necessity of generalising inherent in man, and the wish to have an explanation of how the population extended from the old to the new world, was long zealously defended[314]. No one, either European or native, had yet, so far as we know, extended his hunting journeys to the northernmost promontory of Asia, in consequence of which the position which it was assumed to occupy only depended on loose suppositions. It was possible for instance that Asia stretched with a cape as far as to the neighbourhood of the Pole, or that a broad isthmus between the Pjäsina and the Olenek connected the known portion of this quarter of the world with an Asiatic Polar continent. Nor had geographers a single actual determination of position or geographical measurement from the whole of the immense stretch between the mouth of the Ob and Japan, and there was complete uncertainty as to the relative position of the easternmost possessions of the Russians on the one side and of Japan on the other.[315] It was difficult to get the maps of the Russians to correspond with those of the Portuguese and the Dutch, at the point where the discoveries of the different nations touched each other, which also was exceedingly natural, as at that time too limited an extent east and west by 1700 kilometres was commonly assigned to Siberia. In order to investigate this point, in order to fill up the great blank which still existed in the knowledge of the quarter of the world first inhabited by man, and perhaps above all for the purpose of forming new commercial treaties and of discovering new commercial routes, Peter the Great during the latest years of his life arranged one of the greatest geographical expeditions which the history of the world can show. It was not until after his death, however, that it was carried out, and then it went on for a series of years on so large a scale that whole tribes are said to have been impoverished through the severe exactions of transport that were on its account imposed on the inhabitants of the Siberian deserts. Its many different divisions are now comprehended under the name—the Great Northern Expedition. Through the writings of Behring, Müller, Gmelin, Steller, Krascheninnikov and others, this expedition has acquired an important place for all time in the history not only of geography but also of ethnography, zoology, and botany, and even now the inquirer, when the natural conditions of North Asia are in question, must return to these works. I shall therefore, before drawing this chapter to a close, give a brief account of its principal features.
The Great Northern Expedition was ushered in by "the first expedition to Kamchatka". The commander of this expedition was the Dane VITUS BEHRING, who was accompanied by Lieutenant MORTON SPANGBERG, also a Dane by birth, and ALEXEI CHIRIKOV They left St. Petersburg in February 1725, and took the land route across Siberia, carrying with them the necessary materials with which in Kamchatka to build and equip the vessel with which they should make their voyage of exploration. More than three years were required for this voyage, or rather for this geographico-scientific campaign, in which for the transport of the stores and the shipbuilding material that had to be taken from Europe the rivers Irtisch, Ob, Ket, Yenisej, Tunguska, Ilim, Aldan, Maja, Yudoma, and Urak were taken advantage of. It was not until the 15th/4th April that a beginning could be made at Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog of the building of the vessel, which was launched on the 21st/10th July, and on the 31st/20th of the same month Behring began his voyage.
He sailed in a north-easterly direction along the coast of Kamchatka, which he surveyed. On the 19th/8th August in 64° 30' N. L. he fell in with Chukches, who had still a reputation among the Russians for invincible courage and ferocity. First one of them came to the vessel, swimming on two inflated seal-skins, "to inquire what was intended by the vessel's coming thither," after which their skin-boat lay to. Conversation was carried on with them by means of a Koryäk interpreter. On the 21st/10th August St. Lawrence Islands as discovered, and on the 26th/15th of the same month the explorers sailed past the north-eastern promontory of Asia in 67° 18' and observed that the coast trends to the west from that point, as the Chukches had before informed them. Behring on this account considered that he had fulfilled his commission to ascertain whether Asia and America were separated, and he now determined to turn, "partly because if the voyage were continued along the coast ice might be met with, from which it might not be so easy to get clear, partly on account of the fogs, which had already begun to prevail, and partly because it would be impossible, if a longer stay were made in these regions, to get back the same summer to Kamchatka. There could be no question of passing the winter off the coast of the Chukch Peninsula, because that would have been to expose the expedition to certain destruction, either by being wrecked on the jagged rocks of the open unknown coast, or by perishing from want of fuel, or finally by dying under the hands of the fierce unconquered Chukches". On the 1st Oct/20th Sept the vessel returned to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog.[316] It was during this voyage that the sound, which has since obtained the name of Behring's Straits, is considered to have been discovered. But it is now known that this discovery properly belongs to the gallant hunter Deschnev, who sailed through these straits eighty years before. I suppose therefore that the geographical world will with pleasure embrace the proposal to attach the name of Deschnev along with that of Behring to this part of our globe; which may be done by substituting Cape Deschnev, as the name of the easternmost promontory of Asia, for that of East Cape, an appellation which is misleading and unsuitable in in many respects. Several statements by Kamchadales regarding a great country towards the east on the other side of the sea, induced Behring the following year to sail away in order to ascertain whether this was the case. In consequence of unfavourable weather he did not succeed in reaching the coast of America, but returned with his object unaccomplished, after which he sailed to Okotsk, where he arrived on the 3rd Aug/23rd July 1729. Hence he betook himself immediately to St. Petersburg, which he reached after a journey of six months and nine days.
In maps published during Behring's absence, partly by Swedish officers who had returned from imprisonment in Siberia,[317] Kamchatka had been delineated with so long an extension towards the south that this peninsula was connected with Yezo, the northernmost of the large Japanese islands. The distance between Kamchatka and Japan, rich in wares, would thus have been quite inconsiderable. This nearness was believed to be further confirmed by another Japanese ship, manned by seventeen men and laden with silk, rice, and paper, having stranded in July 1729 on Kamchatka, south of Avatscha Bay. In this neighbourhood there was, along with a number of natives, a small party of Cossacks under the command of ANDREAS SCHTINNIKOV. He at first accepted several presents from the shipwrecked men, but afterwards withdrew from the place where the wreck took place. When the Japanese on this account rowed on in their boats along the coast, Schtinnikov gave orders to follow them in a baydar and kill them all but two. The cruel deed was carried into execution, on which the malefactors took possession of the goods, and broke in pieces the boats in order to obtain the iron with which the boards were fastened together. The two Japanese who were saved were carried to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog. Here Schtinnikov was imprisoned and hanged for his crime. The Japanese were sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language and were converted to Christianity, while some Russians in their turn learned Japanese. The Japanese died between 1736 and 1739. Both were from Satsuma; the elder, SOSA, had been a merchant, and the younger, GONSA, was a pilot's son. Their vessel had been bound for Osaka, but having been carried out of its course by a storm, had drifted about at sea for six months, stranding at last with so unfortunate a result for the greater part of the crew.
This sad occurrence further reminds us that much still remained unaccomplished with respect to the geography of north-eastern Asia. Behring's Kamchatka expedition had besides yielded no information regarding the position of the northern extremity of Asia, or of the part of America lying opposite to Kamchatka. A number of grave doubts appear besides to have been started as to the correctness of the observations during Behring's first voyage. All this induced him to make proposals for a continuation of his explorations, offering, along with his former companions, Spangberg and Chirikov, to take the command of the maritime expedition which was to start from Kamchatka to solve the questions proposed, both eastwards to ascertain the position of the east coast of Asia in relation to the west coast of America, and southwards to connect the areas which the West-Europeans and the Russians were exploring.
The Russian senate, the Board of Admiralty, and the Academy of Sciences were commissioned to develop this plan and to carry it into execution. With respect to the way in which the commission was executed I may be allowed to refer to Müller's oft-quoted work, and to a paper by VON BAER; Peters des Grossen Verdienste um die Erweiterung der geographischen Kenntnisse (Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, B. 16, St. Petersburg, 1872). Here I can only mention that it was principally through the untiring interest which KIRILOV, the secretary of the senate, took in the undertaking, that it attained such a development that it may be said to have been perhaps the greatest scientific expedition which has ever been sent out by any country. It was determined at the same time not only to ascertain the extent of Siberia to the north and east, but also to examine its hitherto almost unknown ethnographical and natural conditions. For this purpose the Great Northern Expedition was divided into the following divisions:—
1. An expedition to start from Archangel for the Ob[318]—For this expedition two kotsches were employed, the Ob and the Expedition 52-1/2 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, each manned with 20 men. The vessels, which were under the command of Lieutenants PAULOV and MURAVJEV, left Archangel on the 15th/4th July, 1734. The first summer they only reached Mutnoi Saliv in the Kara Sea, whence they returned to the Petchora and wintered at Pustosersk. The following year they broke up in June, but did not penetrate farther than in 1734. The unfavourable issue was ascribed to the vessels' unserviceableness for voyages in the Polar Sea, in consequence of which the Board of Admiralty ordered two other boats, 50 to 60 feet long, to be built for the expedition, which were placed under the command of SKURATOV and SUCHOTIN, Muravjev being besides replaced by MALYGIN who sailed with the old vessels on the 7th June/27th May 1736, down the Petchora river, at whose mouth the Expedition was wrecked. Without permitting himself to be frightened by this, Malygin ordered his men to go on board the other vessel, in which with great dangers and difficulties they penetrated through the drift-ice to Dolgoi Island. Here on the 18th/7th August they fell in with the new vessels sent from Archangel. Suchotin was now sent back to Archangel on board the Ob; Malygin and Skuratov sailed in the new vessels to the Kara river and wintered there. During the winter 1736-1737 the men suffered only slightly from scurvy, which was cured by anti-scorbutic plants growing in the region. The ice in the Kara river did not break up until the 12th/1st June, but so much ice still drifted about in the sea that a start could not be made until the 14th/3rd July. On the 4th Aug/24th July the vessels anchored in the sound which I have named Malygin Sound. Here they were detained by head winds 25 days. Then they sailed on round a cape, which the Samoyeds call Yalmal, up the Gulf of Ob to the mouth of the river, which was reached on the 22nd/11th September, 1737, and then up the river to Soswa, where the vessels were laid up in winter quarters. The crews were taken to Beresov. Malygin returned to Petersburg, after having given Lieut. Skuratov and the second mate Golovin a commission to carry the vessels back to the Dwina the following year. They did not get back until August 1739. The return voyage thus also occupied two years, and was attended with much difficulty and danger.
Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel to the Ob and back, which now can be accomplished without difficulty in a single summer. By means of Malygin's and Skuratov's voyages, and of a land journey which the land-measurer Selifontov undertook during July and August 1736 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal and then by boat to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this large island were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.[319]