THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



tliought that it would be possible to proceed from Kamenskoye to 

 northern Kamchatka, in order to study such remnants of the Kam- 

 chadal language and folk-lore as might still exist in some remote vil- 

 lages, and then to return to Anadyr in time for a journey northward. 



I spent the first four months of my field-work at the mouth of the 

 Anadyr, visiting the camps of the Reindeer Chukchee, which during 

 the summer are scattered on the seashore. I made collections and 

 took photographs and anthropometrical measurements. During this 

 time I also made a study of the language of the Ai'wan tribe, wliich 

 forms the main branch of the Asiatic Eskimo. In this I had the aid 

 of two Ai'wan families who live with the Chukchee at Mariinsky Post. 

 The conditions of the summer were rather unfavorable. An epidemic 

 of measles brought by a Russian trader from Vladivostok to Kam- 

 chatka the previous year swept along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk 

 and of Bering Sea, carrying away hundreds of victims. In some 

 places the fatality amounted to about thirty per cent, of the whole 

 population. In the summer of 1900 it reached the Pacific shore of 

 the Chukchee Peninsula, where the loss of life was just as consider- 

 able. Therefore the summer fair which is held at Mariinsky Post 

 early in August every year was not visited in igoo by any of the 

 native traders from the northern Chukchee and the Eskimo villages. 



About the end of October, a considerable time after the freezing 

 of the Anadyr River, I left Mariinsky Post, together with one of my 

 Cossacks, bound for the village of Markova on the middle Anadyr, 

 from there to Kamenskoye on the Okhotsk Sea. From that period 

 till the end of my field-work I spent mv time in continuous travel, 

 and did not remain at any one place more than three or four weeks. 

 Mrs. Bogoras staid on the Anadyr till the next summer, traveling 

 between Mariinsky Post and Markova, and making the greater part of 

 the collections for the Museum, while I spent my time chiefly in 

 collecting scientific information. She was assisted by Mr. Axelrod, 

 whom Mr. Jochelson sent to Mariinsky Post from Kamenskoye. 



We traveled almost exclusively with dogs, several of which I 

 bought from the natives, picking out the best, and from time to time 

 exchanging for fresh ones those that became unfit for further travel. 

 Of these dogs I formed three teams, which allowed us to travel fast 

 enough, when the weather and the conditions of the snow were favor- 

 able. We could carry no heavy loads, however, and had to leave 

 everything behind except our scientific instruments and a few olijects 

 for barter. This obliged us to rely almost wholly on the food-supply 



no 



