Second Expedition
of Shalauroff.
the following year another attempt to double Shelatfkoi
Nofs.; but want of provifion, and the mutiny of the
crew, forced him to return to the Lena in 1763. It
is worth remarking, that during his whole voyage he
found the currents fetting in almoft uniformly from
the Eaft. Two remarkable rocks were obferved by
Shalauroff near the point where the coaft turns to
the N. E. towards the channel which feparates the
if] and Sabadei from the continent; thefe rocks may
ferve to direct future navigators : one is called Saetfhie
Kamen, or Hare’s Rock, and rifes like a crooked horn';
the other Baranei Kamen, -or Sheep’s Rock; it is in
the fhape of a pear, narrower at the bottom than at top,
and rifes twenty-nine yards above high-water mark.
Shalauroff, who concluded from his own experience,
that the attempt to double Tfchukotfkoi Nofs, though
difficult, was by no means imprafticable, was not dif-
couraged by his former want of fuccefs from engaging
a fecond time in the fame enterprize : he accordingly
fitted out the fame fhitik, and in 1764 departed as before
from the river Lena. We have no pofitive accounts
of this fecond voyage ; for neither Shalauroff or
any of his crew have ever returned. The following
circumftances lead us to conclude, that both he and
his crew were killed near the Anadyr by the Tfchutfki,
about the third year after their departure from the Lena.
About
About that time the Koriads off the- Anadyr refufed to
take from the Ruffians the provifion :of flour, which
they are accuftomed to purchafe every- year. Enquiry
being made by the governor of Anadirsk, he found that
they had been amply fupplied with that commodity
by the Tfchutfki. The latter had procured it from the
plunder of ShalaurofPs veffel, the crew of which appeared n<t Actant _
to have perifhed near the Anadyr. From thefe
which have been fince confirmed by repeated intelli- S u S i!“
gence from the Koriacs and Tfchutfki, it has been af-
ferted, that Shalauroff had doubled, the N. E. cape of
Afia. But this affertion amounts only to conjecture ;■ for
the arrival of the crew at the mouth of the Anadyr
affords no decifive proof that they had paffed round the
Eaftern extremity o f Afia; for they might have penetrated
to that river by land, from the Weftern fide of Tfchukotf-
koi-Nofs.
In reviewing thefe feyeral accounts of the Ruffian
voyages in the Frozen Sea, as fat as they relate, to
a North Eaft paffage, we may obferve, that the cape
which ftretches to the North of the Piafida has never
been doubled; and that the exiftence of a paffage round
Tfchukotfkoi Nofs refts upon the fingle authority of
Delhneff. Admitting however a practicable navigation
round thefe two promontories, yet when we confider
the difficulties and dangers which the Ruffians en-
U u countered