420 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



" On the other side of Table Mount the ground sinks regularly 

 towards Kolyutschin Bay. Here for a while we sought in vain 

 for Yettugin's tent, in which we intended to pass the night, and 

 which had been fixed upon as the starting-point of future 

 excursions, till at last reindeer traces and afterwards the sight of 

 some of these friendly animals brought us to the right way, so 

 that about 9 o'clock p.m. we got sight of the longed-for dwelling 

 in the middle of a snow-desert. At the word yaranga (tent) 

 the dogs pointed their ears, uttered a bark of joy, and ran at full 

 speed towards the goal. We arrived at 10.30 P.M. In the tent 

 we were hospitably received by its mistress, who immediately 

 made the necessary preparations for our obtaining food and 

 rest. Yettugin himself was not at home, but he soon returned 

 with a sledge drawn by reindeer. These animals had scarcely 

 been unharnessed when they ran back to the herd, which 

 according to Yettugin's statement was six kilometres east of 

 the tent. 



" I have never seen a family so afflicted with ailments as 

 Yettugin's. The sexagenarian father united in himself almost 

 all the bodily ailments which could fall to the lot of a mortal. 

 He was blind, leprous (?), and had no use of the left hand, the 

 right side of the face, and probably of the legs. His body was 

 nearly everywhere covered with the scars of old sores from four 

 to five centimetres in diameter. As Dr. Almquist and I were 

 compelled to pass the night in the same confined sleeping- 

 chamber with him, it was therefore not to be wondered at that 

 we drew ourselves as much as possible into our corner. The 

 sleeping-chamber or inner tent of a reindeer-Chukch is besides 

 much more habitable than that of a coast-Chukch ; the air, if 

 not exactly pure, may at least be breathed, and the thick layer 

 of reindeer skins which covers the tent floor may well compare 

 in softness with our beds on board. Yettugin, his wife 

 Tengaech, and his brother Keuto, slept out of doors in order 

 to give us more room and not to disturb us when rising. 

 Keuto had inherited no small portion of his father's calamity. 

 He was deaf, half idiotic, and on his body there were already 

 traces of such spots as on the old man's. Keuto was however an 

 obliging youth, who during our stay in the tent did all that he 

 could to be of use to us, and constantly wandered about to get 

 birds and plants for us. He was a skilful archer ; I saw him at a 

 distance of twenty or twenty-five paces kill a small bird with a 

 blunt arrow, and when I placed myself as a target he hit me right 

 in the middle of the breast at a distance of perhaps thirty metres. 



"The 14th was employed by me in astronomical and 

 geodetical observations, and by Dr. Almquist in excursions in 

 the neighbourhood of Yettugin's tent in order to investigate the 

 fauna and flora of the neighbourhood. About 10 o'clock p.m. 



