I 



X.] A DEAD MAN ON THE TUNDRA. 381 



ice, with which the pieces of drift-ice were bound together, still 

 everywhere unbroken. The Chukches, who visited the vessel 

 in dog-sledges on the 28th October, informed us, however, that 

 the sea a little to the east of us was still completely open. 



On the 15th October the hunter Johnsen returned from a 

 hunting expedition quite terrified. He informed us that during 

 his wanderings on the timdra, he had found a murdered man and 

 brought with him, with the idea that, away here in the land of 

 the Chukches, similar steps ought to be taken as in those lands 

 which are blessed by a well-ordered judiciary, as species facti, 

 some implements lying beside the dead man, among which 

 was a very beautiful lance, on whose blade traces of having been 

 inlaid in gold could still be discovered. Fortunately he had 

 come with these things through the Chukch camp unobserved. 

 From the description which was given me, however, I was able 

 immediately to come to the conclusion that the question here 

 was not of any murder, but of a dead man laid out on the 

 tundra. I requested Dr. Almquist to visit the place, in order 

 that he might make a more detailed examination. He con- 

 firmed my conjecture. As wolves, foxes, and ravens had already 

 torn the corpse to pieces, the doctor considered that he, too, 

 might take his share, and therefore brought home with him 

 from his excursion, an object carefully wrapped up and concealed 

 among the hunting equipment, namely, the Chukch's head. It 

 was immediately sunk to the sea-bottom, where it remained for 

 a couple of weeks to be skeletonised by the Crustacea swarming 

 there, and it now has its number in the collections brought 

 home by the Vega. This sacrilege was never detected by the 

 Chukches, and probably the wolves got the blame of it, as 

 nearly every spring it was seen that the corpse, which had been 

 laid out during autumn, lost its head during winter. It was, 

 perhaps, more difiicult to explain the disappearance of the 

 lance, but of this, too, the maws of the wolves might well bear 

 the blame. 



Our hunters now made hunting excursions in different 

 directions, but the supply of game was scanty. The openings 

 in the ice probably swarmed with seals, but they were too dis- 

 tant, and without a boat it was impossible to carry on any 

 hunting there. Not a single Polar bear now appeared to be 

 visible in the neighbourhood, although bears' skulls are found at 

 several places on the beach, and this animal appears to play a 

 great part in the imagination of the natives, to judge of the 

 many figures of bears among the bone carvings I purchased 

 from the Chukches. The natives often have a small strip of 

 bear's skin on the seat of their sledges, but I have not seen any 

 whole bear's skin here ; perhaps the animal is being extermin- 

 ated on the north coast of Siberia. Our wintering, therefore. 



