of the 31st, the east cape bore N.N.E.; and the N.E. part of the bay of St Laurence (where we anchored the last year) W. by S., its distance being four leagues.  As we could not have worked up to windward without a greater waste of time than the object appeared to deserve, we ran across the bay, regretting much, as we passed along, the loss of this opportunity of paying a second visit to the Tschutski.  At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 65 deg. 6’, and longitude 189 deg..  The south point of the bay of St Laurence bore N. by W. 1/4 W., and was distant seven or eight leagues.  In the afternoon, the variation was found to be 22 deg. 50’ E.

Having now passed Beering’s Strait, and taken our final leave of the N.E. coast of Asia, it may not be improper, on this occasion, to state the grounds on which we have ventured to adopt two general conclusions respecting its extent, in opposition to the opinions of Mr Muller.  The first, that the promontory named East Cape, is actually the easternmost point of that quarter of the globe; or, in other words, that no part of the continent extends in longitude beyond 190 deg. 22’ E.; the second, that the latitude of the north-easternmost extremity falls to the southward of 70 deg.  N. With respect to the former, if such land exist, it must necessarily be to the N. of latitude 69 deg., where the discoveries made in the present voyage terminate; and, therefore, the probable direction of the coast, beyond this point, is the question I shall endeavour, in the first place, to investigate.

As the Russian is the only nation that has hitherto navigated these seas, all our information respecting the situation of the coast to the northward of Cape North, must necessarily be derived from the charts and journals of the persons who have been employed at various times in ascertaining the limits of that empire; and these are for the most part so imperfect, so confused, and contradictory, that it is not easy to form any distinct idea of their pretended, much less to collect the amount of their real discoveries.  It is on this account, that the extent and form of the peninsula, inhabited by the Tschutski, still remains a point on which the Russian geographers are much divided.  Mr Muller, in his map, published in the year 1754, supposes this country to extend toward the N.E., to the 75 deg. of latitude, and in longitude 190 deg.  E. of Greenwich, and to terminate in a round cape, which he calls Tschukotskoi Noss.  To the southward of this cape he conceives the coast to form a bay to the westward, bounded in latitude 67 deg. 18’, by Serdze Kamen, the northernmost point seen by Beering in his expedition in the year 1728.  The map published by the academy of St Petersburgh, in the year 1776, gives the whole peninsula entirely a new form, placing its north-easternmost extremity in the latitude of 73 deg., longitude 178 deg. 30’.  The easternmost point in latitude 65 deg. 30’, longitude 189 deg. 30’.  All the other maps we saw, both printed and in manuscript,