Russian Siberia and the Far East in the Seventeenth and Late Nineteenth Centuries.

According to one historical legend, in the 17th century, the Russian treasury needed money. Having learned from someone that there is a "silver mountain" beyond the "Stone" (the Urals), the Tsar sends Cossacks led by I. Moskvitin to explore. The latter, with a detachment came out of Butalsky stockaded town and after 6 weeks, subduing all the local population on the way, reached the river Yudoma, where, having thrown a boarder, built two kayaks and went up to its sources. After 8 days, their way was blocked by waterfalls. The kayaks had to be left behind. After constructing a boat with a capacity of 30 people, they reached the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, which was then called the Great Lama Sea. It took them more than two months to sail all the way out, eating wood, grass, and roots. Here the first Russian seafarers of the Pacific wintered, built a "plotbische" (shipyard), on which two 17-meter seaworthy vessels, kochas, were built. In 1639, on October 1, the Cossacks set out to sea; three days later they landed at the river mouth, where they met the local population, which did not take a friendly attitude toward the foreigners. I. Moskvitin and his comrades-in-arms surveyed the coast to the area of present Magadan and to the Shantar Islands.