But what seems to put this matter beyond all dispute, and to prove that the cape visited by Popoff cannot be to the northward of 69 deg. latitude, is, that part of his deposition, which I have already quoted, relative to the island lying off the Noss, from whence the opposite continent might be seen.  For as the two continents in latitude 69 deg., have diverged so far as to be more than three hundred miles distant, it is highly improbable that the Asiatic coast should again trend in such a manner to the eastward, as to come nearly within sight of the coast of America.

If these arguments should be deemed conclusive against the existence of the peninsula of the Tschutski, as laid down by Muller, it will follow that the east cape is the Tschukotskoi Noss of the[26] more early Russian navigators; and, consequently, that the undescribed coast from the latitude of 69 deg. to the mouth of the river Kovyma, must uniformly trend more or less to the westward.  As an additional proof of this, it may be remarked, that the Tschukotskoi Noss is always represented as dividing the sea of Kovyma from that of Anadir, which could not be the case, if any considerable cape had projected to the N.E. in the higher latitudes.  Thus, in the depositions taken at Anadirsk, it is related, “that opposite the Noss, on both sides, as well in the sea of Kovyma, as in that of Anadir, an island is said to be seen at a great distance, which the Tschutski call a large country; and say that people dwell there who have large teeth put in their mouths that project through their cheeks.”  Then follows a description of these people and their country, exactly corresponding with our accounts of the opposite continent.

The last question that arises is, to what degree of northern latitude this coast extends, before it trends more directly to the westward.  If the situation of the mouth of the Kovyma, both with respect to its latitude and longitude, were accurately determined, it would perhaps not be very 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 deg..  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 deg., before it trends to the westward; and consequently, that we were within 1 deg. 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;