IV.] SACRIFICIAL PLACE ON YALMAL. 150 



tundra. ' Noah's wood ' also appears to be absent here. To 

 judge from our observations at this place, the peninsula between 

 the Gulf of Obi and the Kara Sea thus differs very essentially 

 from the tundra lying east of the Yenisej. 



" We saw no inhabitants, but everywhere along the beach 

 numerous traces of men — some of them barefoot — of reindeer, 

 dogs and Sainoyed sleighs, were visible. On the top of the 

 strand-bank was found a^place of sacrifice, consisting of fjrty- 

 five bears' skulls of various ages placed in a heap, a large 

 number of reindeer skulls, the lower jaw of a walrus, &c. From 

 most of the bears' skulls the canine teeth were broken out, and 

 the lower jaw was frequently entirely wanting. Some of the 

 bones were overgrown with moss and lay sunk in the earth ; 

 others had, as the adhering flesh showed, been placed there during 

 the present year. In the middle of the heap of bones stood four 

 erect pieces of wood. Two consisted of sticks a metre in length 

 with notches cut in them, serving to bear up the reindeer and 

 bears' skulls, which were partly placed on the points of the 

 sticks or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted on the sticks 

 by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two others, which 

 clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice, consisted 

 of driftwood roots, on which some carvings had been made to 

 distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces 

 of wood, intended to represent the eyes and mouth, had recently 

 been besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of 

 bones the entrails of a newly-killed reindeer. Close beside were 

 found the remains of a fireplace, and of a midden, consisting of 

 reindeer bones of various kinds and the lower jaws of bears. 



" As the sandy slopes of the beach offered no suitable 

 breeding-place for looms, black guillemots, or other sea-fowl, 

 and there were no islands along the coast which could serve as 

 breeding-places for eiders and other species of geese which 

 breed in colonies, the abundant bird-life of the Polar Sea was 

 wanting here. At the mouth of the river, however, large 

 flocks of eiders and long-tailed ducks flew about, and on the 

 sandy banks along the shore, flocks of Calidris arenaria and 

 a Tringa or two ran about restlessly seeking their food. The 

 solitude of the tundra was broken only by a couple of larks 

 and a pair of falcons (Falco percgrinvs) with young. Traces 

 of reindeer were also seen, and two fox-traps set on the strand- 

 bank showed that foxes occur in these regions in sufficient 

 numbers to be the object of capture. 



" Later in the afternoon, when some solar altitudes had been 

 taken, in order to determine the geographical position of the 

 place, we rowed back to our vessel and sailed on, keeping at 

 some distance from the coast, and at one place passing between 

 the shore and a long series of blocks of ground-ice, which had 



