THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of the country, and during the whole time we lived on dried fish, 

 reindeer-meat, seal and walrus blubber etc. I found it more difficult 

 to get food for my dogs than for ourselves especially in the spring, 

 when food is scarce in the maritime villages. Thus we were 

 obliged to carry some dog-food all the time, which lessened still more 

 our carrying-capacity for other purposes. In traveling I was usually 

 accompanied by one Cossack and a native guide. Each of us drove 

 his own team of twelve animals. 



The winter of 1900-01 was very severe in the Anadyr country. 

 It began with heavy snowfalls, which were followed by a general 

 thaw. The moss pastures were covered with a crust of ice, and thus 

 the reindeer herds were half starved because they could not break the 

 ice with their hoofs. Therefore the winter fairs were sparsely attended, 

 the people remaining scattered all around the country, unable to 

 undertake any extensive journeys. Blizzards were frequent, and 

 directly after leaving Mariinsky Post we were overtaken by one which 

 lasted several days and spoiled the track to such a degree that our 

 dogs were hardly able to drag themselves through the deep snow. 

 We had to make the greater part of the journey to Markova on snow- 

 shoes and assist our teams in dragging the sledges. 



I reached Kamenskoye after a montli's journey, and found Mr. 

 and Mrs. Jochelson there. Near the end of December, after four 

 weeks' stay, I left Kamenskoye, and went across the plateau of Para- 

 polsky Dol to the first villages of the Kamchatka Koryak, and thence 

 to the villages of the western Kamchadal, on the west coast of the 

 Kamchatka Peninsula. There, in eight villages, I found that the 

 Kamchadal language was still spoken, though rapidly giving way to 

 Russian. The language was found to belong to the same stock as the 

 Chukchee and the Koryak. In several details the Kamchadal lan- 

 guage appears to be more complicated and probably more ancient 

 than the two northern dialects. 



About the end of February I left Kamchatka and started on my 

 return journey to the Anadyr, along the Pacific coast, through a 

 part of the country hitherto wholly unknown and unexplored. The 

 journey had to be made hurriedly, because I had to reach Mariinsky 

 Post on March 25, since I had left directions with the Anadyr branch 

 of the expedition to have everything ready by that time for a journey 

 northwards. Unfortunately I was taken ill with infiuenza in one of 

 the Kamchatka villages and lost my voice temporarily, so that I 

 could communicate with the natives only bv means of signs during 



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