CHAP. X.] THE CHUKCHES FISHING FOR WINTER ROACH. 371 



the other members of the Expedition acc[uired, was confined to 

 a larger or smaller number of words ; the natives also learned a 

 word or two of our language, so that a lingua franca 

 somewhat intelligible to both parties gradually 

 arose, in which several of the crew soon became very 

 much at home, and with which in case of necessity 

 one could get along very well, although in this 

 newly formed dialect all grammatical inflections 

 were totally wanting. Besides, I set one of the 

 crew, the walrus-hunter Johnsen, free for a con- 

 siderable time from all work on board, in order that 

 he might wander about the country daily, partly 

 for hunting, partly for conversing with the natives. 

 He succeeded in the beginning of winter in killing 

 some ptarmigan and hares, got for me a great deal 

 of important information regarding the mode of 

 life of the Chukches, and procured several valuable 

 ethnographical objects. But after a time, for what 

 reason I could never make out, he took an in- 

 vincible dislike to visit the Chukch tents more, 

 without however having come to any disagreement 

 with their inhabitants. 



On the 5th October the openings between the 

 drift-ice fields next the vessel were covered with 

 splendid skating ice, of which we availed ourselves 

 by celebrating a gay and joyous skating festival. 

 The Chukch women and children were now seen 

 fishing for winter roach along the shore. In this 

 sort of fishing a man, who always accompanies the 

 fishing women, with an iron-shod lance cuts a 

 hole in the ice so near the shore that the distance 

 between the under corner of the hole and the 

 bottom is only half a metre. Each hole is used 

 only by one woman, and that only for a short 

 time. Stooping down at the hole, in which the 

 surface of the water is kept quite clear of j)ieces of 

 ice by means of an ice-sieve, she endeavours to 

 attract the fish by means of a peculiar wonderfully 

 clattering cry. First when a fish is seen in 

 the water an angling line, provided with a hook of 

 bone, iron or copper, is thrown down, strips of the 

 entrails of fish being employed as bait. A small 

 metre-long staff with a single or double crook 

 in the end was also used as a fishing implement. 

 With this little leister tlie men cast up fish on the ice with 

 incredible dexterity. When the ice became thicker, this fishing 



B B 2 



ICE-SIEVE. 



One-eighth of 

 the natural size. 



