THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



their underground dwellings, which are reached by a ladder leading 

 down through the smoke-hole. It is almost impossible to describe 

 the squalor of these dwellings. The smoke, which fills the hut, makes 

 the eyes smart. It is particularly dense in the upper part of the hut, 

 so that work that has to be done in an upright position becomes 

 almost impossible. Walls, ladder and household utensils are covered 

 with a greasy soot, so that contact with them leaves shining black 

 spots on hands and clothing. The dim light which falls through the 

 smoke-hole is hardly sufficient for writing and reading. The odor of 

 blubber and of refuse is almost intolerable; and the inmates, intoxi- 

 cated with fly agaric, add to the discomfort of the situation. The 

 natives are infested with lice. As long as we remained in these dwell- 

 ings we could not escape these insects, which we dreaded more than 

 any of the privations of our journey. 



The winter tents of the Reindeer Koryak are so cold that we could 

 not work in them; therefore we had to put up a tent of our own. It 

 was furnished with a small iron stove, and there we carried on our 

 ethnological and anthropometrical work. At night, however, the 

 tent was very cold, and we slept in bags made of wolf-skins. 

 While on the way, we spent the nights on the snow, covered with 

 fur blankets. Several times we were exposed to snowstorms, and 

 had to wait under our blankets, covered with snow, until the gale 

 was over. 



In May we returned to Kushka, and I was engaged until June in 

 packing up and cataloguing the collections which we had made in 

 the winter. In June we started in two boats on the dangerous jour- 

 ney to the mouth of the Nayakhan River. At that time there were 

 assembled at this place more than sixty tents of nomadic Tungus 

 whom I proposed to visit. On our return journey the tempestuous 

 sea drove us into the Bay of Atykyna, where we had to stay for five 

 days, almost without any provisions. Fortunately on the fourth day 

 of our stay my men killed two seals. In July I made a trip by boat 

 from Gishiga to the mouth of the river Ovekova, where I visited a 

 camp of Maritime Koryak. This was my last stay with the Koryak, 

 and on July 28 I returned to Kushka. 



While Mr. Bogoras's party was returning to Vladivostok from 

 Mariinsky Post, and while Mr. Buxton was waiting for the steamer 

 that was to take him back, 1 had to stay another year in northeastern 

 Siberia, the object of my further investigations being the study of 

 the Yukaghir of the Kolyma. 



104 



