M.] 



LAGOON FISHING. 



415 



hill we had a view of the two lagoons west and east of Najtskaj. 

 The western appeared, with the exception of some earthy- 

 heights, to embrace the whole stretch of coast between 

 Najtskaj, the hill at Yinretlen, and the mountains which are 

 visible in the south from the Observatory. The lagoon east 

 of Najtskaj is separated from the sea by a high rampart of sand, 

 and extends about thirty kilometres into the interior, to the foot 

 of the chain of hills which runs along there. To the eastward 

 the lagoon extends along the coast to the neighbourhood of 

 Serdze Kamen. This cape was clearly seen and, according to an 

 estimate which I do not think was far from the truth, was 

 situated at a distance of from twenty-five to twenty-six kilo- 

 metres from Najtskaj. It sinks terracewise towards the sea, 

 and its sides are covered with stone 

 pillars, like those we saw in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cape Great Baranoff. 

 Serdze Kamen to the south is con- 

 nected with mountain heights which 

 are the higher the farther they are 

 from the sea. Some of these have a 

 conical form, others are table-shaped, 

 reminding us of the Ambas of Abys- 

 sinia. Ten or twelve miles into the 

 interior they appear to reach a height 

 of six hundred to nine hundred metres. 

 " The fishing^ in the eastern lasfoon 

 takes place mainly in the neighbour- 

 hood of Najtskaj, at a distance of 

 about five kilometres from the villagfe. 

 Hooks are exclusively used, and no 

 nets or other fishing implements. In 

 a few minutes I saw twenty cod 

 (icrokadlin) caught, and about as many 

 small fish, called by the natives nukio- 

 imthio. For the fishing the natives make a hole in the ice, 

 a decimetre in diameter. Round the hole they build, as 

 a protection against wind and drifting snow, a snow wall 

 eighty centimetres high, forming a circle with an inner 

 diameter of a metre and a half. The fish-hooks are of iron 

 and are not barbed. The line is about five metres long, 

 and is fixed to a rod nearly a metre in length. At the end of 

 the angling line hangs a weight of bone, and beside it the hook. 

 It is generally the women who fish, yet there are generally two 

 or three men about to open the holes, build the walls, and keep 

 the fishing-places clear. All the holes with their shelter-walls 

 lie in an arc, about a kilometre in length, whose convex side is 

 turned to the east. The ice in the lagoon was 1'7 metre thick. 



IBIIBIUI*^ 



CHUKCH SHAMAN DRUM. 



One-eighth tlie natural size. 



