Excerpt from Alaska, Vol. 2: History, Geography, Resources

The geographer Gerhard Friedrich Muller during his researches in Siberia about 1750, ransacked the archives of Yakutsk and other East Siberian settlements for records of early explorations. His extracts from them are all that are saved to us of those invaluable reports, the originals of which were long since destroyed by the fires which have repeatedly ravaged the cities of eastern Siberia. Among these extracts is found one relating to the journey of Peter Iliunsen Popofi who was sent to East Cape in January, 1711, with two interpreters, to endeavor to in duce the obstinate Chukchi natives to pay tribute, and to obtain such information about the region as could be se cured. The party returned to the trading post on the Anadyr River in the following September. They had not been able to convince the Chukchi that there was any suffi cient reason for paying tribute, but they brought back, among other items of information, the news that beyond the islands 06 the Chukchi peninsula lay a large conti nent, forested, inhabited, with great rivers, where were a people with tails like dogs, wearing skin clothing, and living upon wild reindeer and sea animals. The learned academician apologizes for recording this fable of the wild Chukchi, which, however, carries with it the confirmation of the story of Popofi's visit since we now know that it is a common practice of the American Eskimo to wear the tail of a wolf or dog at the back of his girdle on cere monial occasions, or while traveling.

This is the first authentic mention of the continent east of Bering Strait and its inhabitants, though mention had been made by earlier explorers of accounts by the Chuk chi of the Diomede and St. Lawrence Islands.

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