distinctly so admitted in the charts. It is proposed to shew in this memoir, in the first place, that there does not exist satisfactory proof of such a separation; and secondly, that, from peculiarities which have been observed, there is cause to suppose the fact to be otherwise; that is to say, that Asia and America are contiguous, and parts of one and the same continent. This is not an opinion newly formed, but one which many years ago was impressed on other persons as well as on myself, by circumstances witnessed when in the sea to the North of Bering's Strait with Captain Cook, in his last voyage.

"America, from its first discovery by the people of Europe, was regarded by them as a land wholly distinct from their own native continent, till the failure of many attempts to discover a Northern passage to India at length suggested the possibility that the Old and New World (as they were then called) formed but one continent. The solution of this problem, so far as regards a Northeastern navigation to India, has been more naturally the business of the Russians than of any other people, as well on account of the greater facilities possessed by them for prosecuting the Discovery, as for the superior benefit they would derive from a practicable navigation round their coasts to the Tartarian and Indian sea, should such be found.

"The memorable voyage of Semoen Deschnew and his companions in 1648, by which the Russians first discovered the sea East of Kamtschatka (for before that time the river Anadir was supposed to run into the Icy sea) is the principal circumstance which has been admitted as proof of a complete separation of Asia and America. It is important to remark, that this admission is not so old as the expedition on which it is founded, by nearly a century; for no certainty of an absolute navigation having been performed round a North-eastern promontery and extremity of Asia was pretended till after the year 1736, when it was inferred by Professor Muller, from some original writings found at that time in Siberia, concerning Deschnew's Voyage. Baron de Strahlenberg, who had lived many years in Siberia, and whose description of that country is of earlier date than Muller's publication, says of the expedition of 1648, that some Russians departed from the river Lena in boats towards the East, and by that route discovered Kamtschatka. But it was not understood to have been by a clear navigation round the N. E. of Asia; for, in a description subsequently written, he says, ' a class of people, to

whom has been given the denomination of Tartars, inhabit the North-eastern extremity of Asia, concerning which a Kossak officer, named Atlassow, reported, that between the Kolyma and the Anadir were two great promontories, which he affirmed could not both be doubled by any vessel, because the West coast of the first is barred in the summer by floating ice, and in winter the sea there is frozen; but at the second, the sea is clear, without ice.'

of

"Scheuchzer, the translator Kæmpfer's History of Japan, in an introduction to his translation, cites some remarks which had been published concerning the Tartars, wherein it was said, 'the inhabitants of Siberia who live near the river Lena, and along the coast of the Icy ocean, in their commerce with Kamtschatka, commonly go with their ships round a Suetoi Noss [or sacred cape], to avoid the Tschelatzki and Tschuktzki, two fierce and barbarous nations possessed of the North-east point of Siberia.' On this vague authority Scheuchzer concludes, that Asia is not contiguous to America.

"When Mr. Muller first went into Siberia, no credited tradition appears to have been there current of the Northeast extremity of Asia having been sailed round. Charts which were made in Siberia by people inhabiting the coasts of the Icy sea showed uncertainty, and what is to be considered only as an expression of a belief of a great Northeastern promontory; for at that part the coast was not defined by any outline, but left without limitation: whereas a more Southern promontory, supposed the second from the Kolyma, was clearly delineated in the charts without any indication of doubt; and this last-mentioned promontory, it is evident, was the cape which was afterwards seen by Bering, and to which Captain Cook gave the name of Cape East, on account of its being the most Eastern land known of Asia. In the instructions which were given by the Czar Peter the Great for Captain Bering's voyage, the question whether Asia and America were contiguous or separate was regarded as undetermined; and some Tschuktzki people, with whom Bering had communication, informed him that their countrymen, who traded with the Russians on the river Kolyma, always went thither by land with their merchandize on sledges, drawn by rein-deer, and that they had never made the voyage by sea.'

"Mr. Muller has acknowledged that, from the perusal of the papers found concerning the voyage of Deschnew, he adopted a belief which did not before

prevail,

prevail, and he regarded it as a second discovery. Yet Mr. Muller's own account fell very short of warranting a certainty of the manner in which Deschnew arrived at the Eastern Sea; and there is an irregularity in it, which is perplexing. He says, Deschnew in relating his adventures speaks only incidentally of what happened to him by sea. We find no event mentioned till he had reached the great cape of the Tschuktzki. His relation, says Mr. Muller,' begins at this cape. It lies between the North and North-east, and turns circular towards the river Anadir. Opposite to the Cape are two islands, on which were seen men through whose lips were run pieces of the teeth of the sea-horse. With a favourable wind one might sail from here to the Anadir in three days and three nights.'

"The cape or promontory which is here described is evidently the Cape East in Bering's Strait; and in a subsequent part of the account, Deschnew is represented to have said that this Noss on which the vessel of Ankudi

now (one of his companions) was wrecked, was not the first promontory that had occurred, to which they had given the name of Swiætoi Noss.' The word Swiætoi signifies sacred, and is a name suitable to a promontory which could not be doubled. And this corresponds with the Siberian charts before noticed *.

"It is necessary here to explain by what means the navigators in the Icy sea were enabled to arrive with their vessels at a second promontory, without having sailed round the first. On account of the frequency of being inclosed in the ley sea, by the drift ice, it was customary to construct vessels in a manner that admitted of their being with ease taken to pieces; by which they could be carried across the ice to the outer edge, and there be put together again. The planks were fastened and kept to the timbers only by leathern straps, in lieu of nails or pegs. The construction of the vessels in which Deschnew and his companions went is not specified. Mr. Muller calls them Kotsches. Baron Strahlenberg says they departed Eastward from the river Lena in their boats.

"In the beginning of the 18th century,

* It may be objected to this inference, that another cape in the ley sea, although it has been sailed round, bears nevertheless the name of Swiætoi Noss; but it may naturally be imagined that the name was given before the difficulty had been surmounted.

the Czar Peter the Great sent directions to the Governor of Iakutzk to collect information concerning the discoveries which had been made. In consequence of this order, several examinations and depositions were taken; and the few authentic particulars which are known of the voyage of Deschnew were thereby preserved. The most remarkable of the depositions which are cited by Mr. Muller, next to what relates to the expedition of Deschnew, is one which was made by a person named Nikiphor Malgin, who stated that a merchant named Taras Staduchin, did many years before relate to him, the deponent, that he had sailed with ninety men in a Kotsche from the river Kolyma towards the great cape of the Tschuktzki: that not being able to double it, they had crossed over on foot to the other side, where they built other vessels. The small breadth of the isthmus at the part where they crossed, is noticed as the most remarkable circumstance in this deposition.' They afterwards proceeded along the coast round the Kamtschatka Peninsula, till they came to the Penschinska gulf; and, in the short account which is given of this navigation, is found, expressed in an obscure manner, the first notice obtained by the Russians of the Kurilski islands.

"This is a clearly described passage. Besides the expedition of Deschnew, and this of Taras Staduchin, only one other instance is mentioned of any vessel having gone by sea from the Kolyma round the Tschuktzki coast; and this last mentioned case rests on the authority of an unauthenticated tradition, purporting that some man had gone in a vessel not larger than a skiff, from the Kolyma to Kamtschatka; and no other particular is spoken of in the report.

"This was the state of the information obtained concerning the Northeastern extremity of Asia, at the time of Captain Bering's voyage. The Asiatic side only of Bering's Strait was discovered in that voyage, and the coast of Asia being there found to take a Western direction, it had the effect of giving an impression, equal to demonstration, of a total separation of Asia and America. And after that time, and not before, Deschnew was believed to have performed the whole of his voyage from the Kolyma to the Anadir by sea.

Many reports had circulated in Siberia of the existence of Northern lands in the ley sea; but persons sent purposely to examine, had not found land, which much discredited the reports. A chart in which a Northern land was marked was however published at Pe

tersburg

tersburg about the year 1626, by a Colonel Schestakow, of the Jakutzk Kossaks, a man of great ability as well as enterprise. Neither Schestakow nor his chart, however, are favourably noticed by Mr. Muller, who was in general a candid historian. On Schestakow's chart, the North land was marked with the name of the Large Country. M. de Lisle gave credit to Schestakow's map for the Large Country, which he makes appear on his own chart as a part of America, extending Westward beyond the Kolyma.

"Between the years 1734 and 1739, three expeditions were undertaken to ascertain the limits of Asia to the North and North-east, from which no advantage was reaped, and they were attended with circumstances of extraordinary distress and misery. These undertakings show that the boundary of Asia was not then regarded as ascertained. In 1764, a chart was sent from Siberia to Petersburg, which again showed a continuation of the American continent stretch

ing far to the West, and opposite to the Siberian coast of the Icy sea.

"Between the years 1760 and 1765, no less than four attempts were made by one and the same individual, a Russian merchant, named Shalaurof, to sail from the Icy sea round the North

east of Asia. In the last of these attempts this enterprising and persevering man perished, for neither himself nor any of his people ever returned.

"The information which was obtained in the first three attempts of Shalaurof, is simply, that he arrived at an island › which he named Sabedei, and beyond it sailed into a bay of the Continent, which he named Tschaoon Bay, which was estimated to be distant about 70 leagues

to the East from the entrance, of the river Kolyma. Here were found habitations and people.

"Tschaoon Bay ran deep into the land Southward and Eastward, and probably it was from this place that Taras Staduchin crossed over to the Eastern sea. Northward from Tschaoon Bay, the coast took something of a Westerly direction. The most advanced part of the land seen, was a high mountain far off to the North-east, Shalaurof being then to the North of the island Sabedei.

"Among the attempts to determine the North-eastern limits of Asia, is to

be reckoned the march of a small Kossak army under the command of a Captain Paulutzki, which, after traversing the Tschuktzki country, from the gulf of Anadir to the Icy sea, marched along the shore Eastward, with intention to trace round the North-east coast; but

6

the land being found to run far North, and their provision being expended, Paulutzki was obliged to relinquish the attempt.

"Such was the state of the information which had been obtained, when Captain Cook arrived in the sea of Kamtschatka. Of three passages said to have been accomplished from the Icy sea to the Eastern sea, the manner of performing the voyage is distinctly ex-pressed only in one; and that is specified to have been by crossing an isthmus, and not by sailing round a promontory." [To be concluded in our next.]

IN

Mr. URBAN, Leicester, April 10. N reply to the question proposed by Clericus, p. 194, I beg to observe, that I am not aware of any power being given to a Surrogate by the Act of the 1st Jac. c. 11*, to grant a licence in the case he mentions. The Act certainly excepts a person, situated as your Correspondent has described, from its penalties; but does not interfere with the general law which existed before it, and by which every second marriage, celebrated during the existence of a former marriage, was merely voidt: it leaves this law precisely as it found it; and therefore if a party coming within the exceptions of the Act, marry a second time, his second marriage will be just as void as if the Act had never been made, provided the first marriage were not dissolved at the time of such second marriage. This being the case, I cannot see how any Surrogate can properly or legally grant a licence to an applicant coming under the exceptions referred to. The Church surely should not lend her authority in a case where such an inCanons; besides, how could any appli dulgence would be contrary to her cant of the above description make the usual affidavit? Could he safely swear himself to be a widower?

I am not aware that the question has been ever regularly argued, and it is one upon which a difference of opinion may arise. Were I a Surrogate, I should refer the applicant to the Registrar's Office.

Yours, &c. J. STOCKDALE HARDY.