with American whalers than
with Russian traders. They acknowledged the name _chukch_ or
_chautchu_.

[Illustration: CHUKCH BOATS. ]

Many of them were tall, well-grown men. They were clothed in close
fitting skin trousers and "pesks" of reindeer skin. The head was
bare, the hair always clipped short, with the exception of a small
fringe in front, where the hair had a length of four centimetres and
was combed down over the brow. Some had a cap of the sort used by
the Russians at Chabarova, stuck into the belt behind, but they
appeared to consider the weather still too warm for the use of this
head-covering. The hair of most of them was bluish-black and
exceedingly thick. The women were tattooed with black or
bluish-black lines on the brow and nose, a number of similar lines
on the chin, and finally some embellishments on the cheeks. The type
of face did not strike one as so unpleasant as that of the Samoyeds
or Eskimo. Some of the young girls were even not absolutely ugly. In
comparison with the Samoyeds they were even rather cleanly, and had
a beautiful, almost reddish-white complexion. Two of the men were
quite fair. Probably they were descendants of Russians, who for some
reason or other, as prisoners of war or fugitives, had come to live
among the Chukches and had been nationalised by them.

In a little we continued our voyage, after the Chukches had returned
to their boats, evidently well pleased with the gifts they had
received and the leaf tobacco I had dealt out in bundles,--along
with the clay pipes, of which every one got as many as he could
carry between his fingers,--with the finery and old clothes which my
comrades and the crew strewed around them with generous hand. For we
were all convinced that after some days we should come to waters
where winter clothes would be altogether unnecessary, where our want
of any article could easily be supplied at the nearest port, and
where the means of exchange would not consist of goods, but of
stamped pieces of metal and slips of paper.

[Illustration: A CHUKCH IN SEAL-GUT GREAT COAT. After a photograph
by L. Palander. ]

On the 7th September, we steamed the whole day along the coast in
pretty open ice. At night we lay to at a floe. The hempen tangles
and the trawl-net were put out and yielded a very rich harvest. But
in the morning we found ourselves again so surrounded by ice and
fog, that, after several unsuccessful attempts to make an immediate
advance, we w