onsisted
of eighteen tents, pitched on both sides of a river which
ran through the valley. The tents were inhabited by
reindeer-Chukches, who carry on traffic between the
Russians and a tribe living on the other side of Behring's
Straits, whom they call _Yekargaules_. Between the tents
we saw a great number of sledges, both empty and loaded.
Some of these were light and low sledges for driving in,
with runners bent upwards and backwards, others were
heavier pack-sledges, made of stronger wood, with the
runners not bent back. Some of the light sledges were
provided with tilts of splints covered with reindeer
skins; others were completely covered, having an entrance
only in front.

"The knives, axes, boring tools, &c., which I saw were of
iron and steel, and had evidently been obtained from
Americans or Russians. The household articles in Menka's
brother's tent consisted of some copper coffee-pots, which
were used for boiling water, a german-silver beaker with
an English inscription, two teacups with saucers, flat
wooden trays, and barrels. The dress of the
reindeer-Chukches is similar to that of the
coast-Chukches, only with this difference, that the former
use reindeer-skins exclusively, while the latter employ
seal-skin in addition. Some, on our arrival, put on
blouses of variegated cloth, probably of Russian
manufacture. Among ornaments may be mentioned glass-beads,
strung on sinews, which were worn in the ears or on the
neck, chiefly by the women. These were tattooed in the
same way as those of the coast-Chukches. I saw here,
however, an old woman, who, besides the common tattooing
of the face, was tattooed on the shoulders, and another,
who, on the outside of the hands, had two parallel lines
running along the hand and an oblique line connecting
them. The men were not tattooed. Two of them carried
crosses, with Slavonic inscriptions, at the neck, others
carried in the same way forked pieces of wood. Whether
these latter are to be considered as their gods or as
amulets I know not.

"As we could not obtain here the reindeer that we wished
to purchase on account of the expedition, we betook
ourselves with our dogs on the afternoon of the same day
along with Menka to his son-in-law's encampment, which we
reached at 8 o'clock in the evening. We