﻿372 TCHUKCHE. 



of whether it ought to be considered as the remains 

 of the ancient trunk, or merely a decaying branch, 

 we close our remarks on the Eskimos. 



EEIN-DEER TCHUKCHE. 



Before proceeding to give an account of the 

 Kutchin, the second of the native nations whose 

 lands were traversed by the expedition, I shall 

 introduce a brief notice of the Asiatic Rein-deer 

 Tchukche*, who designate themselves by the ap- 

 pellation of Tchekto, "people." Mr. Matiuschkin 

 describes them as being a remarkably strong and 

 powerful race, resembling the Americans in their 

 physiognomy. They once owned the whole country 

 from Beering's Straits to some distance westward 

 of the Kolyma, having dispossessed, according to tra- 

 dition, a once numerous people, named OmoJci, who 

 are now extinct, and also the Namollos of the 

 coast. f The advance of the Cossacks and Russians 

 has driven them back beyond the Kolyma into 



* The notices of this people are taken from Matiuschkin's 

 description of them in " Wrangell's Expedition to the Polar 

 Sea." In the orthography of the name I have followed the 

 English translation of Wrangell's book. The French translator 

 writes Tchouktchas, and Biier Tchuktschen. In Cook's Third 

 Voyage it is written Tschutshi, and by Dr. Latham Tshuktshi. 



f Omoki has an Eskimo sound : thus 07na, " he," okhoa or 

 omokoa, " they." And as the Central Eskimos soften k and g into 

 I and m, a little etymological coaxing might produce a word like 

 Namollo. 



