, on which account
our experience of the Chukches' abilities in this way is exceedingly
limited.

All sport they entered into with special delight, for instance, some
trial shooting which Palander set on foot on New Year's Day
afternoon, with a small rifled cannon on the _Vega_. At first the
women sat aft with the children, far from the dreadful shooting
weapon, and indicated their feelings by almost the same gestures as
on such occasions are wont to distinguish the weaker and fairer sex
of European race. But soon curiosity took the upper hand. They
pressed forward where they could see best, and broke out in a loud
"Ho, ho, ho!" when the shot was fired and the shells exploded in the
air.

Of what sort is the art-sense of the Chukches? As they still almost
belong to the Stone Age, and as their contact with Europeans has
been so limited that it has not perhaps conduced to alter their
taste and skill in art, this question appears to me to have a great
interest both for the historian of art, who here obtains information
as to the nature of the seed from which at last the skill of the
master has been developed in the course of ages and millenniums, and
for the archaeologist, who finds here a starting point for forming a
judgment both of the Scandinavian rock-etchings and the palaeolithic
drawings, which in recent times have played so great a part in
enabling us to understand the oldest history of the human race. We
have therefore zealously collected all that we could of Chukch
carvings, drawings, and patterns. The most remarkable of these in
one respect or another are to be found delineated in the woodcuts on
the preceding pages.[288]

[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ]

[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ]

Many of the ivory carvings are old and worn, showing that they have
been long in use, probably as amulets. Various of the animal images
are the fruit of the imagination, and as such may be instructive. In
general the carvings are clumsy, though showing a distinctive style.
If we compare them with the Samoyed images we brought home with us,
it appears that the genius of the Chukches for art has reached an
incomparably higher development than that of the Polar race which
inhabits the western portion of the north coast of Asia, on the
other hand, they are in this respect evidently inferior to the
Eskimo at Port Clarence. The Chukch drawings too are roughly and
clumsily executed, but many of them exhi