[331] Wrangel, i. p. 79.
[332] Sauer, An Account, &c., Appendix, p. 48.
[333] Sauer, loc. cit. p. 103, according to an oral communication by Ljachoff's follower Protodiakonov.
[334] Compare Wrangel, i. p. 98.
[335] Matthias Hedenström, Aulic Councillor, whose name indicates that he was of Swedish birth, died at the village Hajdukovo, seven versts from Tomsk, on the 2nd October (20th September), 1845, at the age of sixty-five. Biographical notes regarding Hedenström are to be found in the Calendar for the Irkutsh government for the year 1865, pp. 57-60; I have not, however, succeeded in procuring this work, or in finding any other notices of Hedenström's birthplace and life.
[336] A very remarkable geological fact is the number of tree-stems in all stages of decay and petrifaction, which are embedded in the rocks and earthy strata of Siberia, having their origin all along from the Jurassic age till now. It appears as if Siberia, during the whole of this immense period of time, has not been subjected to any great changes in a purely geographical respect, whereas in Europe there have been innumerable alternations of sea and land, and alps have been formed and disappeared. The Siberians call the tree-stems found on the tundra far from the sea and rivers Adam's wood, to distinguish them from more recent sub fossil trees, which they call Noah's wood.
[337] The first European who visited the part of America lying right opposite to Asia was Schestakov's companion, the surveyor Gvosdev. He crossed Behring's Straits to the American side as early as 1730 (Müller, iii. p. 131), and therefore ought properly to be considered as the discoverer of this sound. The north-westernmost part of America, Behring's Straits and the islands situated in it, are besides shown in Strahlenberg's map, which was made at least a decade before Gvosdev's voyage. There north-western America is delineated as a large island, inhabited by a tribe, the Pucho-chotski, who lived in a constant state of warfare with the Giuchieghi, who inhabited the islands in the sound. Wrangel Land is also shown in this remarkable map. In 1767, eleven years before Cook's voyage in the Polar Sea, the American side of Behring's Straits was also visited by Lieut. SYND with a Russian expedition, that started from Okotsk in 1764. In the short account of the voyage which is to be found in William Coxe's, Account of the Russian Discoveries, &c., London, 1780, p. 300, it is said expressly that Synd considered the coast on which he landed to belong to America. On Synd's map, published by Coxe, the north part of the Behring Sea is enriched with a number of fictitious islands (St. Agaphonis, St. Myronis, St. Titi, St. Samuels, and St. Andreæ). As Synd, according to Sarytchev in the work quoted below, p. 11, made the voyage in a boat, it is probable that by these names islands were indicated which lay quite close to the coast and were not so far from land as shown in the map, besides, the mountain-summits on St. Lawrence Island, which are separated by extensive low lands, may perhaps have been taken for separate islands.
[338] Billings' voyage is described in Martin Sauer's Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern Parts of Asia, &c., by Commodore Joseph Billings, London, 1802, and Gavrila Sarychev's Achtjährige Reise im nördlichen Siberien, auf dem Eismeere und dem nordöstlichen Ocean. Aus dem Russischen übersetzt von J. H. Busse, Leipzig, 1805-1806. As interesting to our Swedish readers it may be mentioned that the Russian hunter Prybilov informed Sauer that a Swedish brigantine, Merkur, coppered, carrying sixteen cannon, commanded by J. H. Coxe, in 1788, cruised in the Behring Sea in order to destroy the Russian settlements there. They however, according to Prybilov's statement to Sauer, "did no damage, because they saw that we had nothing worth taking away. They instead gave us gifts, because they were ashamed to offer violence to such poor fellows as we" (Sauer, p. 213).
[339] Otto von Kotzebue, Entdeckungs-Reise in die Sud-See und nach der Behrings Strasse, Weimar, 1821 (Part III., Contributions in Natural History, by Adelbert von Chamisso)—Louis Choris, Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, Paris, 1822.
Frédérik Lütké, Voyage autour du monde, Paris, 1835-36.—F. H. von Kittlitz, Denkuürdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem russischen Amerika, nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka, Gotha, 1858.