452 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



abounding in fish, appears to form the earthly j^aradise of the 

 Samoyed of the present day. Some hundred famiHes belonging 

 to this race wander about here with their numerous reindeer 

 herds. During winter they withdraw to the interior of the 

 country or southwards, and the coast is said then to be unin- 

 habited. This is the case both summer and winter, not only with 

 Beli Ostrov and the farthest portion of the peninsula between 

 the Ob and the Yenisej (Mattesol), but also with the long stretch 

 of coast between the mouth of the Yenisej and Chaun Bay. 

 During the voyage of the Vega in 1878 we did not see a single 

 native. No trace of man could be discovered at the places 

 where we landed, and though for a long time we sailed quite 

 near land, we saw from the sea only a single house on the shore, 

 viz., the before-mentioned wooden hut on the east side of 

 Chelyuskin peninsula. Russian simovies and native encamp- 

 ments are indeed still found on the rivers some distance from 

 their mouths, but the former coast population has withdrawn to 

 the interior of the country or died out,^ and the north coast of 

 Asia first begins again to be inhabited at Chaun Bay, namely, 

 by the tribe with whom we came in contact during the latter 

 part of the coast voyage of the Vega in 1878 and during the 

 wintering. 



I have already, it is true, given an account of various traits 



1 The north coast of America still forms the haunt of a not incon- 

 siderable Eskimo population which, for a couple of centuries, has extended 

 to the 80th de.2;ree of latitude. As the climate in the nortli part of the 

 Old World differs little from that which prevails in corresponding regions 

 of the New, as at both places there is an abundant supply of fish, and as the 

 seal and walrus hunting — at least between the Yenisej and the Chatanga — 

 ought to be as productive as on the north coast of America, this difference, 

 which has arisen only recently, is very striking. It appears to me to be 

 capable of explanation in the following way. Down to our days a large 

 number of small- savage tribes in America have carried on war with each 

 other, the weaker, to escape extermination by the more powerful races, 

 being compelled to flee to the ice deserts of the north, deeming themselves 

 fortunate if they could there, in peace from their enemies, earn a living by 

 adopting the mode of life of the Polar races, suitable as it is to the climate 

 and resources of the land. The case was once the same in Siberia, and 

 there are many indications that fragments of j conquered tribes have 

 been in former times driven up from the south, not only to the 

 north coast of the mainland, but also beyond it to the islands lying 

 off it. In Siberia, however, for the last 250 years, the case has 

 been completely changed by the Eussian conquest of the country. 

 The pressure of the new government has, notwithstanding many single 

 acts of violence, been on the whole less destructive to the original popu- 

 lation than the influence which the Europeans have exerted in America. 

 The Russian power has at least had a wholly beneficial influence, inasmuch 

 as it has prevented the continual feuds between the native races. The 

 tribes driven to the inhospitable North have been enabled to return to 

 milder regions, and where this has not taken place they have, in the 

 absence of new migrations from the South, succumbed in the fight with cold, 

 hunger, and small-pox, or other diseases introduced by their new masters. 



