332 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [CHAr. 



purse. Dutch clay pipes, again, I had in great abundance, from 

 the accident that two boxes of these pipes, which were to have 

 been imported into Siberia with the expedition of 1876, did not 

 reach Trondhjem until the Ymcr had sailed from that town. 

 They were instead taken on the Ver/a, and now, though quite 

 too fragile for the hard iino-ers of Chukches, answered well for 

 smaller bargains, as gifts of welcome to a large number of 

 natives collected at the vessel, and as gifts to children in order 

 to gain the favour of their parents. I besides distributed a large 

 quantity of silver coin with King Oscar's effigy, in order, if any 

 misfortune overtook us, to afford a means of ascertaining the 

 places we had visited. 



For the benefit of future travellers I may state that the wares 

 most in demand are large sewing and darning needles, pots, 

 knives (preferably large), axes, saws, boring tools and other iron 

 tools, linen and woollen shirts (preferably of bright colours, but 

 also white), neckerchiefs, tobacco and sugar. To these may be 

 added the spirits which are in so great request among all savages ; 

 a currency of which, indeed, there was great abundance on the 

 Vega, but which I considered myself prevented from making 

 use of. In exchange for this it is possible to obtain, in short, 

 an5rthing whatever from many of the natives, but by no means 

 from all, for even here there are men who will not taste spirits, 

 but with a gesture of disdain refuse the glass that is offered 

 them. The Chukches are otherwise shrewd and calculating 

 men of business, accustomed to study their own advantage. 

 They have been brought up to this from childhood through the 

 barter which they carry on between America and Siberia. 

 Many a beaver-skin that comes to the market at Irbit belongs to 

 an animal that has been caught in America, whose skin has passed 

 from hand to hand among the wild men of America and Siberia, 

 until it finally reaches the Russian merchant. For this barter a 

 sort of market is held on an island in Behring's Straits. At 

 the most remote markets in Polar America, a beaver-skin is 

 said some years ago to have been occasionally exchanged for a 

 leaf of tobacco.^ An exceedingly beautiful black fox-skin was 

 offered to me by a Chukch for a pot. Unfortunately I had 

 none that I could dispense with. Here, too, prices have risen. 

 When the E-ussians first came to Kamchatka, they got eight 

 sable-skins for a knife, and eighteen for an axe , and yet the 

 Kamchadales laughed at the credulous foreigners who were 

 so easily deceived. At Yakutsk, when the Russians first 

 settled there, a j^ot was even sold for as many sable-skins as 

 it could hold.^ 



1 C. von Dittmar, Bulletin hist.-philolog. de VAcad. de St. Petershourg, 

 XIII. 1856, p. 130. 



2 Krascheniunikov, Hlstoire et Description du Kamfschafka, Amsterdam 

 1770, II. p. 95. A. Erman, Eeise urn die Erde, D. 1, B. 2, p. 255. 



