1779- noon our latitude, by obfervation, was 6s ' 6', and longitude
Ju'y' . !89°. T h e South point o f the Bay o f St, Laurence bore North
b y Weft one quarter Weft, and was diftant feven or e ight
leagu es. In the afternoon the variation was found to be
. 22° 50' Eaft.
Having now palled Beering’ s Straits, and taken our final
leave o f the North Eaft coaft o f Afia, it m a y n ot be improper,
on this occafion, to ftate the grounds on w hich we have
ventured to adopt two general conclufions refpecting its extent,
in oppofition to the opinions o f Mr. Muller. The firft,
that the promontory named Eaft Cape is actually the Eaftern-
moft point o f that quarter o f the g lo b e ; or, in other words,
that no part o f the continent extends in longitude beyond
190° 22' Eaft: the fecond, that the latitude o f the North Eaft-
ernmoft extremity falls to the Southward o f 70° North. With
refpect to the former, i f fuch land exift, it muft necefiarily
be to the North o f latitude 69°, where the difcoveries made
in the prefent voyage* terminate -, and, therefore, the probable
direction o f the coaft, beyond this point, is the quef-
tion 1 ih a ll endeavour, in the firft place, to inveftigate.
As the Ruffian is the only nation that has hitherto navigated
thefe feas, all our information refpedting the fitua-
tion p f the coaft to the Northward o f Cape North, muft ne-
ceflarily he derived from the charts and journals o f the
perfons who have been employed, at various times, in afceiv
taining the limits o f that empire; and thefe are, for the
moft part, fo imperfedt, fo confufed, and contradictory, that
i t is not eafy to form any diilindt idea o f their pretended,
m u ch lefs to collect the amount p f their real difcoveries.
It is on this account, that the extent and form o f the penin-
fpla, inhabited by the Tfchptfk i, ftill remains a point, on
w hich
w h ich the Ruffian geographers are much divided. Mr. Mul- ’j w
1er, in his map, publifhed in thé year !754, fuppofes this coun- '— —
try to extend toward the North Eaft, to the 75°'of latitude,
and in longitude 190° Eaft o f Greenwich, and to terminate
in a round Cape, which he calls T fchuk otfkoi Nofs. To the
Southward o f this Cape he conceives the coaft to form a b ay
to the Weftward, bounded in latitude 67° 18', by Serdze Ka-
men, the Northernmoft point feen b y Beering in his expedition
in the year 1728. T h e map, publiffied by the academy
of.S t. Peterfburg, in the year 1776, gives the whole
peninfula intirely a new form, placing its North Eafternmoft
extremity in the .latitude 73“, longitude 178°* 30': T he
Eafternmoft point in latitude 65° 30', longitude 189°'30'. A ll
the other maps w e fàw, both printed and in manufcript,
vary between thefe two, apparently more according to the
fan cy o f the compiler, than on any grounds o f more a c curate
information. T he only point in w hich there is a
general coincidence, without any confiderable variation, is
in the pofition o f the Eaft Cape in latitude 6b\ T h e form
o f the coaft, both to t h e S o u t h and North o f this Cape, in-
the map o f the academy, is exceedingly erroneous, and may
be totally difregarded. In that o f Mr. Muller, the coaft to-
the Northward bears a confiderable refemblance to our fu r -
vey, as far as the latter extends, except that it does not
trend fuffieiently to the Weftward ; receding only about 5°
o f longitude, between the latitude o f 66° and 69 ; whereas,
in reality, it recedes near ten. Between the latitude o f 69
and 74°; h e makes the coaft bend round' to the Noith and
North Eaft, and to form a confiderable promontory. Om
what authority, now remains to be examined.
Mr. Coxe, whofe accurate refearches into this fubjedt, give
his, opinion great weight, is perfuaded that the extremity o f
the