st making an excursion with dog-sledges in order to be even
with one of the natives, who had received an advance for driving him
to Markova, but had not kept his promise. Of this journey Lieutenant
Nordquist gives the following account:--

"On the 5th December, at 7.50 A.M., I started with a
dog-sledge for the village Pidlin, lying on Kolyutschin
Bay. I was driven by the Chukch Auango from Irgunnuk. He
had a small, light sledge, provided with runners of
whalebone, drawn by six dogs, of which the leader was
harnessed before the other five, which were fastened
abreast in front of the sledge, each with its draught
belt. The dogs were weak and ill managed, and therefore
went so slowly that I cannot estimate their speed at more
than two or three English miles an hour. As the journey
both thither and back lasted eight to nine hours, the
distance between Pitlekaj and Pidlin may be about
twenty-five English miles.

"Pidlin and Kolyutschin Island are the only inhabited
places on Kolyutschin Bay. At the former place there are
four tents, pitched on the eastern shore of the bay, the
number of the inhabitants being a little over twenty
persons. I was received in front of the tents by the
population of the village and carried to the tent, which
was inhabited by Chepcho, who now promised to go with me
in February to Anadyrsk. My host had a wife and three
children. At night the children were completely undressed;
the adults had short trousers on, the man of tanned skin,
the woman of cloth. In the oppressive heat, which was kept
up by two train-oil lamps burning the whole night, it was
difficult to sleep even in the heavy reindeer-skin
dresses. Yet they covered themselves with reindeer skins.
Besides the heat there was a fearful stench--the Chukches
obeyed the calls of nature within the bedchamber--which I
could not stand without going out twice to get fresh air.
When we got up next morning our hostess served breakfast
in a flat tray, containing first seals' flesh and fat,
with a sort of sourkrout of fermented willow-leaves, then
seals' liver, and finally seals' blood--all frozen.

"Among objects of ethnographical interest I saw, besides
the Shaman drum which was found in every tent, and was not
regarded with the superstitious dread which I have often
observed elsewhere, a bundle