The 250th anniversary of the discovery of Alaska
1983; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10889378309377201
ISSN2377-7702
Autores Tópico(s)Polar Research and Ecology
ResumoAbstract Semen Dezhnev was the first to round the “great rocky cape”; (Chukchi Peninsula) in 1648 and to hear from the Chukchis of two islands of “big‐toothed people”; (Eskimos) opposite the peninsula. One of these islands, called the “great land,”; connoted Alaska. From 1711 this long island was depicted on Russian maps. In 1732 Ivan Fedorov and Mikhail Gvozdev became the first Russians to sight the American coast and to prove that Alaska was not an island but part of a continent. The name “Alaska,”; meaning “whale ground,”; originally denoted the Alaska Peninsula only. (The translation is by James R. Gibson, York University, Downsview, Ontario.)
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