difficult to form a probable conjecture upon this point. Captain Cook was
always strongly of opinion that the northern coast of Asia, from the
Indigirka eastward, has hitherto been generally laid down more than two
degrees to the northward of its true position; and he has, therefore, on
the authority of a map that was in his possession, and on the information
he received at Oonalashka, placed the mouth of the river Kovyma, in his
chart of the N.W. coast of America, and the N.E. coast of Asia, in the
latitude of 68°. Should he be right in this conjecture, it is probable, for
the reasons that have been already stated, that the Asiatic coast does not
any where exceed 70°, before it trends to the westward; and consequently,
that we were within 1° of its north-eastern extremity. For, if the
continent be supposed to stretch any where to the northward of Shelatskoi
Noss, it is scarcely possible that so extraordinary a circumstance should
not have been mentioned by the Russian navigators; and we have already
shewn that they make mention of no remarkable promontory between the Kovyma
and the Anadir, except the east cape. Another circumstance, related by
Deshneff, may, perhaps, be thought a further confirmation of this opinion,
namely, that he met with no impediment from ice in navigating round the
N.E. extremity of Asia; though, he adds, that this sea is not always so
free from it, as indeed is manifest from the failure of his first
expedition, and since that, from the unsuccessful attempts of Shalauroff,
and the obstacles we met with, in two different years, in our present
voyage.[27]

The continent left undetermined in our chart between Cape North, and the
mouth of the Kovyma is, in longitudinal extent, one hundred and twenty-five
leagues. One-third, or about forty leagues, of this distance, from the
Kovyma eastward, was explored in the year 1723, by a _sinbo-jarskoi_ of
Jakutz, whose name was Feodor Amossoff, by whom Mr Muller was informed,
that its direction was to the eastward. It is said to have been since