of amulets fastened with a
small thong, a wolf's skull, which was also hung up by a
thong, the skin together with the whole cartilaginous
portion of a wolf's nose and a flat stone. The amulets
consisted of wooden forks, four to five centimetres long,
of the sort which we often see the Chukches wear on the
breast. My host said that such an amulet worn round the
neck was a powerful means of preventing disease. The
wolf's skull which I had already got, he took back,
because his four- or five-year-old son would need it in
making choice of a wife. What part it played in this I did
not however ascertain.

"While my driver harnessed the dogs for the journey home,
I had an opportunity of seeing some little girls dance,
which they did in the same way as that in which I had seen
girls dance at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen. Two girls then
place themselves either right opposite to or alongside of
each other. In the former case they often lay their hands
on each other's shoulders, bend by turns to either side,
sometimes leap with the feet held together and wheel
round, while they sing or rather grunt the measure.

"The journey home was commenced at eight o'clock in the
morning. In the course of it my driver sang Chukch songs.
These are often only imitations of the cries of animals or
improvisations without any distinct metre or rhythm, and
very little variation in the notes; only twice I thought I
could distinguish a distinct melody. In the afternoon my
driver told me the Chukch names of several stars. At five
o'clock in the afternoon I reached the _Vega_."

On the 10th October, the new ice at many places in the neighbourhood
of the vessel was still so weak that it was impossible to walk upon
it, and blue water-skies at the horizon indicated, that there were
still considerable stretches of open water in the neighbourhood. But
the drift-ice round about us lay so rock-fast, that I could already
take solar altitudes from the deck of the vessel with a mercurial
horizon. In order to ascertain the actual state of the case with
reference to the open water, excursions were undertaken on the 13th
October, in different directions. Dr. Kjellman could then, from the
rocky promontory at Yinretlen, forty-two metres high, see large open
spaces in the sea to the northward. Dr. Almquist went right out over
the ice, following the track of