3*^8 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



or hindrance on our deck, which was encumbered with a great 

 many things. We had not however to lament the loss of the 

 merest trifle. Honesty was as much at home here as in the 

 huts of the reindeer Lapps. On the other hand, they soon 

 became very troublesome by their beggary, which was kept in 

 bounds by no feeling of self-respect. Nor did they fail to take 

 all possible advantage of what they doubtless considered the 

 great inexperience of the Europeans. Small deceptions in this 

 way were evidently not looked upon as blameworthy, but as 

 meritorious. Sometimes, for instance, they sold us the same 

 thing twice over, they were always liberal in promises which 

 they never intended to keep, and often gave deceptive accounts 

 of articles which were exposed for sale. Thus the carcases of 

 foxes were offered, after having been flayed and the head and 

 feet cut off, on several occasions as hares, and it was laughable 

 to see their astonishment at our immediately discovering the 

 fraud. The Chukches' complete want of acquaintance with 

 money and our small> supply of articles for barter for which they 

 had a liking besides compelled even me to hold at least a portion 

 (jf our wares at a high price. Skins and blubber, the common 

 products of the Polar lands, to the great surprise of the natives, 

 were not purchased on the Vega. On the other hand a complete 

 collection of weapons, dresses, and household articles was pro- 

 cured by barter. All such purchases were made exclusively 

 on account of the Expedition, and in general the collection of 

 natural and ethnographical objects for private account was wholly 

 forbidden, a regulation which ought to be in force in every 

 scientific expedition to remote regions. 



As the Chukches began to acquire a taste for our food, they 

 never neglected, especially during the time when their hunting 

 failed, to bring daily on board driftwood and the vertebrae and 

 other bones of the whale. They bartered these for bread. A 

 load of five bits of wood, from four to five inches in diameter 

 and six feet long, was commonly paid for with two or three ship 

 biscuits, that is to say with about 250 gram bread, the vertebra 

 of a whale with two ship biscuits, &c. By degrees two young 

 natives got into the habit of coming on board daily for the 

 purpose of performing, quite at their leisure, the ofiice of 

 servant. The cook was their patron, and they obtained from 

 him in compensation for their services the larger share of the 

 left victuals. So considerable a quantity of food was distributed 

 partly as payment for services rendered or for goods purchased, 

 partly as gifts, that we contributed in a very great degree to 

 mitigate the famine which during midwinter threatened to 

 break out among the population. 



None of the .natives in the neighbourhood of the Vegas 

 winter station professed the Christian religion. None of them 



