f an eruptive
rock. The crest of "the head" was also closely covered
with loose stones. On the north of wind side these stones
were covered with a hard beaten crust of snow nearly two
feet thick, on the south side most of them were bare.
According to Brusewitz the southern slopes are still
steeper than the northern. South of the hill he saw a
large valley--probably a lake--through which flows the
river which we crossed.

"As on the outward journey I went with Notti, he advised
me to offer a little food and brandy to the Spirit of the
Lake, _itjaken kamak_, in order to get good net fishing.
On my inquiring what appearance he had, Notti replied
"_uinga lilapen_," "I have never seen him." Besides this
spirit there are in his view others also in streams, in
the earth, and in some mountains. The Chukches also
sacrifice to the sun and moon. On the other hand they do
not appear, as some other races, to pay any sort of
worship to their departed friends. When I gave him a
biscuit and bade him offer it, he made with the heel a
little depression in the snow on Nutschoitjin, crumbled a
little bit of the biscuit in pieces, and threw the crumbs
into the hollow. The rest of the biscuit he gave back,
declaring that _kamak_ did not require more, and that we
should now have more fish in the net than the first time.
Notti said also that the Chukches are wont to sacrifice
something for every catch. Thus have probably arisen all
the collections of bear and seal skulls and reindeer
horns, which we often saw on the Chukch coast, especially
on eminences.

"After we had read off the aneroid, we speedily made our
way to the snow-house, because during the interval a
violent storm of drifting snow had arisen, so that we
could not see more than half a score of paces before us.
On the slope below "the head" we had already on our way
thither seen traces of two wild reindeer. Notti said that
there are a few of them on the hill the whole winter. The
greater number, however, draw farther southward, and
approach the coast only during summer. Johnson had wounded
an owl (_Strix nyctea_), which however made its escape. On
the 24th snow fell and drifted during the whole day, so
that we could not go out to shoot. On the 25th we came on
board again.

"According to the aneroid observ