[139] See Catesby's Natural History of Florida, Carolina, &c. This bird is called by Linnæus Corbus Cristatus. I have seen, in Mr. Pennant's MS account of the history of the animals, birds, &c. of N. America, and the Northern hemisphere, as high as lat. 60, an exact description of this bird. Whenever that ingenious author, to whom we are indebted for many elegant and interesting publications, gives this part of his labours to the world, the zoology of these countries will be fully and accurately considered.
[140] According to Mr. Pallas, the plants of the new-discovered islands are mostly alpine, like those of Siberia; this he attributes to the shortness and coldness of the summer, occasioned by the frequency of the North winds. His words are: "Quoique les hivres de ces isles soient assez temperés par l'air de la mer, de façon que les neiges ne couvrent jamais la terre que par intervalles, la plupart des plantes y sont alpines, comme en Siberie, par la raison que l'eté y est tout aussi courte et froide, a cause des vents de nord qui y regnent." This passage is taken from a MS treatise in the French language, relative to the new-discovered islands communicated to me by my very learned and ingenious friend Mr. Pallas, professor of natural history at St. Petersburg; from which I have been enabled to collect a considerable degree of information. This treatise was sent to Mons. Buffon; and that celebrated naturalist has made great use of it in the fifth volume of his Supplement à l'Histoire Naturelle.
[141] The reader will recollect in this place, that the natives of the contiguous islands touched at by Beering and Tschirikoff "presented to the Russians the calumet, or pipe of peace, which is a symbol of friendship universal among the people of North America, and an usage of arbitrary institution peculiar to them." See Robertson's Hist. Am. vol. I. p. 276. S. R. G. III. p. 214.
[142] This map was published by Jefferys under the following title: "A Map of the Discoveries made by the Russians on the North West coast of America, published by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Petersburg. Republished by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to his Majesty, 1761."
[143] Mr. Muller has long ago acknowledged, in the most candid and public manner, the incorrectness of the former chart, as far as it relates to the part which represents America, as contiguous to Kamtchatka: but he still maintains his opinion concerning the actual vicinity of the two continents in an higher latitude. The following quotation is taken from a letter written by Mr. Muller, in 1774, of which I have a copy in my possession. "Posterity must judge if the new chart of the Academy is to be preferred to the former one for removing the continent of America (which is represented as lying near the coast of Tschutski) to a greater distance. Synd, who is more to be trusted than the Promyschlenics, persists in the old system. He places America as near as before to Tschukotskoi Noss, but knows nothing of a large island called Alashka, which takes up the place of the continent, and which ought to be laid down much more to the South or South East."
[144] Monsieur Buffon has adopted the apellation and erroneous representation of the isles of Anadyr, in his Carte de deux regions Polaires, lately published. See Supplement à l'Hist. Nat. vol. V. p. 615.
[145] The Olotorian Isles are so named from the small river of Olotora, which flows into the sea at Kamtchatka, about latitude 61°. The following remarks upon this group of islands are taken from a letter of Mr. Muller mentioned in the last note. "This appellation of Olutorian Isles is not in use at Kamtchatka. These islands, called upon this chart Olutorians, lie according to the chart of the Promyschlenics, and the chart of the Academy, very remote from the river Olutora: and it seems as if they were advanced upon this chart nearer to Kamtchatka only in favour of the name. They cannot be situated so near that coast, because they were neither seen by Beering in 1728, nor by the Promyschlenics, Novikoff and Bacchoff, when they sailed in 1748 from the Anadyr to Beering's Island." See p. 42.
[146] I have a MS. copy of Otcheredin's chart in my possession; but as the Fox Islands, in the general Map of Russia, are copied from thence, the reader will find them laid down upon the reduced map prefixed to this work. The anonymous author of the account of the Russian Discoveries, of whose work I have given a translation in Part I. seems to have followed, in most particulars, Otcheredin's chart and journal for the longitude, latitude, size, and position of the New Discovered Islands. For this reason, I should have had his chart engraved if the Fox Islands upon the general map had not been taken from thence: there seemed no occasion therefore for increasing the expence of this work, already too great from the number of charts, by the addition of another not absolutely necessary.
[147] The twelfth chapter of this Essay relates to the discoveries and commerce of the Russians in the Eastern Ocean. The account of the Russian discoveries is a translation of Mr. Stæhlin's Description of the New Northern Archipelago. In addition, he has subjoined an account of Kamtchatka, and a short sketch of the Russian commerce to the New Discovered Islands, and to America. If we may believe the author of this Essay, the Russians have not only discovered America, but they also every year form occasional settlements upon that continent, similar to those of the Europeans in Newfoundland. His words are: "Il est donc certain, que les Russes ont dècouvert le continent de l'Amérique; mais on peut assurer qu'ils n'y ont encore aucun port, aucun comptoir. Il en est des établissements de cette nation dans la grande terre, comme de ceux des nations Européennes dans l'isle de Terre Neve. Ses vaisseaux ou frégates arrivent en Amèrique; leurs equipages et les Cosaques chasseurs s'etablissent sur la côte; les uns se retranchent, et les autres y font la chasse et la pêche du chien marin et du narval. Ils reviennent ensuite au Kamtchatka, après avoir été relevès par d'autres frégates sur les mêmes parages, ou à des distances plus ou moins eloignés, &c. &c." See Essai sur le commerce de la Russie, p. 292-293. Thus the publick is imposed upon by fictitious and exaggerated accounts.
[148] See No IX. of this Appendix.