nformed him that in the Polar Sea
off the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka there was a large
island, which in clear weather could be seen from land, and which
the Chukches reached in winter with reindeer sledges in one day from
Chukotska, a river debouching in the Polar Sea east of the Kolyma.
They brought home walrus tusks from the island, which was of
considerable size, and the hunters supposed "that it was a
continuation of Novaya Zemlya, which is visited by people from
Mesen." Wrangel is of opinion that this account refers to no other
than Krestovski Island, one of the Bear Islands. This, however,
appears to me to be improbable. It is much more likely that it
refers partly to the New Siberian Islands, partly to Wrangel Land,
and perhaps even to America. That the Russians themselves had not
then discovered Ljachoff's, or as it was then also called, Blischni
Island, which lies so near the mainland, and is so high that it is
impossible to avoid seeing it when one in clear weather sails past
Svjatoinos, which lies east of the Yana, is a proof that at that
time they had not sailed along the coast between the mouths of the
Yana and the Indigirka. Finally, a great river, the Pogytscha, was
spoken of, which could be reached in three or four days' sailing
eastward from the mouth of the Kolyma. This was the first account
which reached the conquerors of Siberia of the great river Anadyr
which falls into the Pacific.

These accounts were sufficient to incite the Cossacks and hunters to
new expeditions. The beginning was made by ISAI IGNATIEV from Mesen,
who, along with several hunters, travelled down the Kolyma in 1646
to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. The sea was
full of ice, but next the land there was an open channel, in which
the explorers sailed two days. They then came to a bay, near whose
shore they anchored. Here the Russians had their first meeting with
the Chukches, to which reference has already been made. Hence
Ignatiev returned to the Kolyma, and the booty was considered so
rich and his account of his journey so promising, that preparations
were immediately made in order next year to send off a new maritime
expedition fitted out on a larger scale to the coast of the Polar
Sea.

This time FEODOT ALEXEJEV from Kolmogor was chief of the expedition,
but along with him was sent, at the request of the hunters, a
Cossack in the Russian service in order to guard the rights of the
crown. His name