extremity of Asia by land. "In February, 1821, Baron Wrangel, an officer of
great merit and of considerable science, left his head-quarters in the
Nishney Kolyma, to settle by astronomical observations the position of
Shatatzkoi Noss, or the North-east Cape of Asia, which he found to lie in
latitude 70 deg. 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed in the
maps. Having crossed this point, he undertook the hazardous enterprize of
crossing the ice of the Polar Sea, on sledges drawn by dogs, in search of
the land said to have been discovered in 1762 to the northward of the
Kolyma, He travelled directly north eighty miles, without perceiving any
thing but a field of interminable ice, the surface of which had now become
so broken and uneven, as to prevent a further prosecution of his journey.
He had gone far enough, however, to ascertain that no such land had ever
been discovered." (Quarterly Review, No. LII. p. 342.)

Another attempt, still more extraordinary and hazardous, has lately been
made to explore the north-east of Asia, and particularly to determine
whether the two continents of Asia and America do not unite at the
North-east Cape, or in some other point. This enterprize was undertaken by
Henry Dundas Cochrane, a commander in the British navy; who received
assurances from the Russian government that he should not be molested on
his journey; that he should receive any assistance, protection, and
facilities he should require; and that he might join an expedition sent by
the Russian government toward the Pole, if he should meet it, and accompany
it as far as he might be inclined. He left Petersburgh in the beginning of
the summer of 1820, and in one hundred and twenty-three days reached the
Baikal, having traversed eight thousand versts of country, at the rate of
forty-three miles a day. He seems afterwards to have gone as far as the
Altai Mountains, on the frontiers of China. As, however, his principal
object was to explore the extreme north-east of Asia, he went down the
Lena, and reached Jakutzk on the 16th of October, 1820. On the Kolyma,
where he arrived on the 30th of December, in longitude 164 deg., he met the
Russian polar expedition. From Jakutzk to this place he travelled four
hundred miles, without meeting a single human being. At the fair held at
Tchutski, whither he next directed his steps, he received much information
respecting the northeast of Asia. He ascertained the existence of this
cape;