of King George's Archipelago, and Prince of Wales's Archipelago.

The coast from the gulph Kamischezkaia to New Cornwall is inhabited by five tribes, who form as many great territorial divisions on the colonies of Russian America. Their names are Koniagi, Kenayzi, Tschugatschi, Ugalachmiuti, and Koliugi.

The most northern part of Alaska, and the island of Kodiak, vulgarly called by the Russians Kichtak, though Kightak in the language of the natives in general means only an island, belongs to the Kaniagi division. A great interior lake of more than 26 leagues in length, and 12 in breadth, communicates by the river Igtschiagick with the bay of Bristol. There are two forts and several factories on the Kodiak Island (Kadiak), and the small adjacent islands. The forts established by Schelikoff bear the name of Karluk and the three Sanctifiers. M. Malte-Brun says that, according to the latest information, the Kichtak archipelago was destined to contain the head place of all the Russian settlements. Sarytschew asserts, that there are a bishop and Russian monastery in the island of Umanak (Umnak). I do not know whether there has been any similar establishment elsewhere; for the chart published in 1802 indicates no factory either at Umnak, Unimak, or Unalaschka. I read, however, at Mexico, in the

manuscript journal of Martinez's voyage, that the Spaniards found several Russian houses, and about a hundred small barks, at the island of Unalaschka in 1788. The natives of the peninsula Alaska call themselves the men of the east (Kagataya-Koung'ns).

The Kenayzi inhabit the western coast of Cook creek, or the gulph Kenayskia. The Rada factory, visited by Vancouver, is situated there under the 61° 8'. The governor of the island of Kodiak, a Greek named Ivanitsch Delareff, assured M. Sauer that, notwithstanding the rigour of the climate, grain would thrive well on the banks of Cook river. He introduced the culti vation of cabbages and potatoes into the gardens at Kodiak.

The Tschugatschi occupy the country between the northern extremity of Cook Inlet and the east of Prince William's bay (Tschugatskaia gulf). There are several factories and three small forts in this district: Fort Alexander, near the mouth of Port Chatham, and the forts of the Tuk islands, (Green Island of Vancouver), and Tchalca (Hinchinbrook Island).

The Ugalachmiuti extend from the gulf of Prince William to the bay of Jakutal, called by Vancouver Bering's bay*. The factory of St.

* We must not confound the bay of Bering of Vancouver, situated at the foot of Mount St. Elie, with the Bering's bay of the Spanish maps, near Mount Fairweather (Nevado de

Simon is near Cape Suckling (Cape Elie of the Russians). It appears that the central chain of the Cordilleras of New Norfolk is considerably distant from the coast at the Pic of St. Elie; for the natives informed M. Barrow, who ascended the river Mednaja (copper river) for a length of 500 werst (120 leagues), that it would require two days' journey northwards to reach the high chain of the mountains.

The Koliugi inhabit the mountainous country. of New Norfolk, and the northern part of New Cornwall. The Russians mark Burroughbay on their charts (latitude 55° 50′) opposite the Revillagigedo island of Vancouver (Isla de Gravina of the Spanish maps), as the most southern and eastern boundaries of the extent of country of which they claim the property. It appears that the great island of the King George archipelago has, in fact, been examined with more care and more minutely by the Russian navigators than by Vancouver. Of this we may easily convince ourselves by comparing attentively the western coast of this. island, especially the environs of Cape Trubizin (Cape Edgecumbe), and of the port of the Archangel St. Michel, in Sitka bay (the Norfolk Sound

Buentiempo). Without an accurate acquaintance with geographical synonomy, the Spanish, English, Russian and French works on the north-west coast of America are almost unintelligible; and it is only by a minute comparison of the maps that this synonomy can be fixed.

of the English, and Tchinkitané bay of Marchand), on the charts published at Petersbourg in the imperial depôt in 1802, and on the charts of Vancouver. The most southern Russian establishment of this district of the Koliugi is a small fortress (crapost) in the bay of Jakutal, at the foot of the Cordillera which connects Mount Fairweather with Mont St. Elie, near Port Mulgrave, under the 59° 27' of latitude. The proximity of mountains covered with eternal snow, and the great breadth of the continent from the 58° of latitude, render the climate of this coast of New Norfolk, and the country of the Ugalachmiuti, excessively cold and inimical to the progress of vegetation.

When the sloops of the expedition of Malaspina penetrated into the interior of the bay of Jakutal as far as the port of Desengano, they found the northern extremity of the port under the 59° of latitude covered in the month of July with a solid mass of ice. We might be inclined to believe that this mass belonged to a glacier which terminated in high maritime alps; but Mackenzie relates, that on examining the banks of the Slave lake, 250 leagues to the east under 61° of latitude, he found the lake wholly frozen over in the month of June.

* Vancouver, t. v. p. 67.

The

difference of temperature observable in general on the eastern and western coast of the new continent, of which we have already spoken, appears only to be very sensible to the south of the parallel 53°, which passes through New Hanover, and the great island of Queen Charlotte.

There is nearly the same absolute distance from Petersbourg to the most eastern Russian factory on the continent of America, as from Madrid to the port of San Francisco in New California. The breadth of the Russian empire embraces under the 60° of latitude an extent of country of nearly 2400 leagues; but the small fort of the bay of Jakutal is still more than 600 leagues distant from the most northern limits of the Mexican possessions. The natives of these northern regions have, for a long time, been cruelly harassed by the Siberian hunters. Women and children were retained as hostages in the Russian factories. The instructions given by the Empress Catharine to Captain Billings, drawn up by the illustrious Pallas, breathe the spirit of philanthropy, and the most noble sensibility. The present government is seriously occupied in diminishing the abuses, and repressing the vexations; but it is difficult to prevent these evils at the extremities of a vast empire; and the American is doomed to feel every instant his distance from the capital. Moreover, it appears more