57G THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



were bound together by twine made of whalebone in such a 

 manner that they resembled large beetles, being intended for 

 use in the same way as salmon-flies at home. 



Fire was got partly with steel, flint, and tinder, partly by 

 means of the flre-drill. Many also used American lucifers. The 

 bow of the flre-drill was often of ivory, richly ornamented with 

 hunting figures of different kinds. Their tools were more 

 elegant, better carved and more richly coloured with graphite ^ 

 and red ochre than those of the Chukches ; the people were 

 better off and owned a larger number of skin-boats, both 

 Im/aJcs and umiaks. This undoubtedly depends on the sea 

 being here covered with ice for a shorter time and the ice being 

 thinner than on the Asiatic side, and the hunting accordingly 

 being better. All the old accounts however agree in represent- 

 ing that in former times the Chukches were recognised as a 

 great power by the other savage tribes in these regions, but 

 all recent observations indicate that that time is now past. A 

 certain respect for them, however, appears still to prevail among 

 their neighbours. 



The natives, after the first mistrust had disappeared, were 

 friendly and accommodating, honourable in their dealings though 

 given to begging and to much haggling in making a bargain. 

 There appeared to be no chief among them ; complete equality 

 prevailed, and the position of the woman did not appear to be 

 inferior to that of the man. The children were what we would 

 call in Europe well brought up, though they got no bringing up 

 at all. All were heathens. The liking for spirits appeared to 

 be less strong than among the Chukelies. We learn besides 

 that all selling of spirits to savages is not only forbidden on 



^ (rrnphite must be found in great abundance on tlie Asiatic side of 

 Behrino's Straits. I procured during winter a number of pieces, whicli bad 

 evidently been rolled in running water. Cbamisso mentions in Kotzebue's 

 Voyages (iii. p. 169) tbat be bad seen tliis .mineral along witb red ochre 

 among tbe inhabitants at St. Lawrence Bay ; and Lient. Hooper states in 

 his work (p. 139), tbat graphite and red ochre are found at the village 

 Oongwysac between Chukotskoj-nos and Behring's Straits. The latter 

 colour was sold at a high price to the inhabitants of distant encamp- 

 ments. These minerals have undoubtedly been used in the same way from 

 time immemorial, and they are probably, like flint and nephrite, among 

 the few kinds of stone which were used by the men of the Stone Age. So 

 far as is known, graphite came first into use in Europe during the middle 

 ages. A black-lead pencil is mentioned and delineated for the first time 

 by Conrad Gessner in 1565. The rich but now exhausted graphite seam 

 at Borrowdale, in England, is mentioned for the first time by Dr. Merret 

 in 1667, as containing a useful mineral peculiar to England. Very rich 

 graphite seams have been found during recent decades, both at the 

 mouth of the Yenisej (Sidoroff's graphite quarry) and at a spur of 

 the Sayan mountains in the southern part of Siberia (Alibert's graphite 

 quarry), and these discoveries have played a certain ivle in the recent 

 history of the exploration of the country. 



