IN NORTHERN MISTS 



the Russian word, being so definitely localized, must doubtless be derived from 

 the North-Finnish linguistic region. Whether the Finnish "mursu," Lappish 

 " morssa," " morsa," can be referred to a metathesis of Old Norse " rosm- 

 hvalr," Danish " rosmer," etc., Professor Berneker is unable to determine. 

 " But with loan-words all sorts of anomalies take place, and no rules can be 

 laid down." 



If we compare these various utterances of such eminent 

 authorities, it appears to me that there are paramount reasons 

 for regarding the Russian-Finnish name for walrus as of 

 Norse origin. But in that case it also becomes probable that 

 the Norwegians were the pioneers in walrus hunting along 

 the coasts of the Polar Sea, and that both the Finnish peoples 

 and the Russians learned from them. 



It will doubtless be difficult to find a natural explanation 

 of the peoples on the northern coasts of Russia having from 

 the first developed their arctic sea hunting with large craft, 

 unless we suppose that they learned it from the Norwegians, 

 and that it is thus a continuation of the methods of the latter. 

 It should also be remembered that the Kola peninsula as far 

 as the White Sea itself was reckoned a tributary country of 

 Norway (cf. p. 135), and that the name of the Murman coast 

 means simply the Norwegians' coast. None of the peoples 

 on the north coast of Russia can have been a seafaring 

 people very far back, as is shown by their boats and appli- 

 ances; and it is difficult to believe that they should have 

 been able to develop independently a system of navigation 

 on a coast presenting such unfavorable conditions; no 

 doubt they could have done so with small boats, originally 

 river boats,^ but not with larger craft; this they must most 



1 Professor Olaf Broch has described to me the peculiar river boat that is 

 used far and wide in North Russia, and that is evidently a very old type of 

 boat. Broch saw it on the Sukhona, a tributary of the Dvina. The bottom of 

 the boat is a dug-out tree-trunk of considerable size, which can only be found 

 farther up the country. By heating the wood the sides are given the desired 

 shape, and to the dug-out foundation is fastened a board on each side; Broch 

 did not remember whether it was sewed or nailed on. The boat is thus a 

 transitional form between the dug-out canoe and the clinker-built boat. This 

 type of boat may also have reached the shore of the Polar Sea; but there can- 

 not have been timber for building it there. 

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