It is, however, contended, that there are strong reasons for believing that the sea is more free from ice the nearer we approach to the Pole; and that all the ice we saw in the lower latitudes was formed in the great rivers of Siberia and America, the breaking up of which had filled the intermediate sea.  But even if that supposition be true, it is equally so, that there can be no access to those open seas, unless this great mass of ice is so far dissolved in the summer as to admit of a ship’s getting through it.  If this be the fact, we have taken a wrong time of the year for attempting to find this passage, which should have been explored in April and May, before the rivers were broken up.  But how many reasons may be given against such a supposition?  Our experience at Saint Peter and Saint Paul enabled us to judge what might be expected farther north; and upon that ground we had reason to doubt whether the continents might not in winter be even joined by the ice; and this agreed with the stories we heard in Kamtschatka, that on the Siberian coast they go out from the shore in winter upon the ice to greater distances than the breadth of the sea is in some parts from one continent to the other.

In the depositions referred to above, the following remarkable circumstance is related.  Speaking of the land seen from the Tschukotskoi Noss, it is said, “that in summer time they sail in one day to the land in baidares, a sort of vessel constructed of whale-bone, and covered with seal-skins; and in winter time, going swift with rein-deer, the journey may be likewise made in one day.”  A sufficient proof that the two countries were usually joined together by the ice.

The account given by Mr Muller of one of the expeditions undertaken to discover a supposed island in the Frozen Sea, is still more remarkable.  “In the year 1714, a new expedition was prepared from Jakutzk, for the same place, under the command of Alexei Markoff, who was to sail from the mouth of the Jana; and if the Schitiki were not fit for sea-voyages, he was to construct, at a proper place, vessels fit for prosecuting the discoveries without danger.

“On his arrival at Ust-janskoe Simovie, the port at which he was to embark, he sent an account, dated February 2, 1715, to the Chancery of Jakutzk, mentioning that it was impossible to navigate the sea, as it was continually frozen both in summer and winter; and that consequently the intended expedition was no otherwise to be carried on but with sledges drawn by dogs.  In this manner he accordingly set out, with nine persons, on the 10th of March the same year, and returned on the 3d of April, to Ust-janskoe Simovie.  The account of his journey is as follows:  That he went seven days as fast as his dogs could draw him, (which, in good ways and weather, is eighty or a hundred wersts in a day) directly towards the north, upon the ice, without discovering any island; that it had not been possible for him to proceed any farther, the ice rising there in the sea like mountains; that he had climbed to the top of some of them, whence he was able to see to a great distance round about him, but could discern no appearance of land; and that at last wanting food for his dogs, many of them died, which obliged him to return.”