[Illustration: ICE MATTOCKS. One-ninth of the natural size. ]

Two sorts of _ice mattocks_, the shaft is of wood, the blade of the
spade-formed one of whalebone, of the others of a walrus tusk, it is
fixed to the shaft by skin thongs with great skill.

Sometimes both the shaft and blade are of bone, fastened together in
a somewhat different way.

_Hones_ of native clay-slate. These are often perforated at one end
and carried along with the knife, the spoon, and the sucking-tube,
fastened with an ivory tongs in the belt.

Home-made _vessels of wood, bone of the whale, whalebone, and skin_
of different kinds.

_Knives, boring tools, axes and pots_ of European, American, or
Siberian origin, and in addition casks, pieces of cable, iron scrap,
preserved-meat tins, glasses, bottles, &c., obtained from ships which
have anchored along the coast. Vessels have regularly visited the
sea north of Behring's Straits only during the latest decades, and
the contact between the sailors and the Chukches has not yet exerted
any considerable influence on the mode of life of the latter. The
natives, however, complain that the whalers destroy the
walrus-hunting, while on the other hand they see with pleasure
trading vessels occasionally visiting their coasts.

During our stay off the considerable encampment, Irkaipij, we
believed, as I have already stated, that we had found a chief in a
native named Chepurin, who, to judge by his dress, appeared to be
somewhat better off than the others, had two wives and a stately
exterior. He was accordingly entertained in the gunroom, got the
finest presents, and was in many ways the object of special
attention. Chepurin took his elevation easily, and showed himself
worthy of it by a grave and serious, perhaps somewhat condescending
behaviour, which further confirmed our supposition and naturally
increased the number of our presents. Afterwards, however, we were
quite convinced that we had in this case committed a complete
mistake, and that now there are to be found among the Chukches
living at the coast neither any recognised chiefs nor any trace of
social organisation. During the former martial period of the history
of the race the state of things here was perhaps different, but now
the most complete anarchy prevails here, if by that word we may
denote a state of society in which disputes, crimes, and punishments
are unknown, or at least exceedingly rare. [287] A sort of
chieftainship appears, a