CKUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 75 



alarmed and refuse to bring them in. The old deerman held a consultation with his two sons, in 

 which his wife and daughter joined occasionally. As these consultations seemed uuuecessarily 

 long to us we endeavored .to hurry them up, and asked the interpreter what was the cause of it, 

 what was being said. &c, to all of which we received for reply, " Hold on ; by and by." After a 

 while the conference broke up, and the two sons, who were muscular-looking fellows of probably 

 sixteen and eighteen years, withdrew to the tent, and one of the interpreters remarked, "All 

 right, he go; soon plenty deer come." In a few minutes the young fellows emerged from the tent 

 prepared lor a run. Their outer garments, consisting of deer-skin shirts and trousers, had been 

 removed. They were clad only in an inner suit, which is a close-fitting garment of young deer- 

 skin, worn witli the hair side next to the person. The flesh side, as with most Tchuktchi deer- 

 skins, was colored red by a preparation of willow or alder bark, giving it a very singular appear- 

 ance. Each carried in his hand a bear spear, and after a few words, whicli we were told meant 

 that they would not be gone long, and a few more, which we understood by what followed to 

 mean "tie up the dogs," they sped away up the valley and were out of sight in a few minutes, 

 so rapid was their pace. While waiting their return we amused ourselves in various ways. Muir, 

 Nelson, and I were plying questions to the deerman hard and fast, when we were startled by one 

 of the interpreters saying, " Hello, what in hell is that? By God, I believe 1 see a bear," at the 

 same time pointing to a dark object seen to be moving near the top of a mountain about 2,000 feet 

 high, and some distance away. For a minute this caused considerable excitement, and the pros- 

 pect of a bear chase seemed to be good, but on examination with the glasses it proved to be the 

 doctor, who from the height he had climbed must have been absent some time, but who had not 

 been missed. Alter this interruption we again settled down to asking questions. The deerman, 

 although perfectly good-natured, was not communicative, but his wife took great delight in 

 answering questions. She had not had an opportunity for a good gossip before, probably, for 

 some time, and she made the best of it. She remembered perfectly well the telegraph people, and 

 seemed to enjoy talking about them. She pointed with great satisfaction to a scar on her face, and 

 informed us by pantomime, too striking to be mistaken, that when she received it she was very 

 drunk, and having what she considered a delightful time. 



Mr. Nelson, who was always ready to catch up anything of ethnological interest, whether a 

 specimen or a dry fact, came upon a curiosity in the shape of a " doll baby." This was a forked 

 branch of willow, and originally had borne but slight resemblance to the human form, but Tchuck- 

 tchi ingenuity had made the resemblance very striking. This, the mother informed us, belonged 

 to the daughter, and was made by her. The sight of it caused a smile to go round. A graphic 

 description in English of this doll, by one of the interpreters, was entirely too much for the gravity 

 of the party, and a general shout followed. About 3 p. m. the quick eye of the old deerman 

 detected the approach of the herd far up the valley, and soon after we started out to meet them. 

 The herd consisted of about one hundred and fifty deer, of all ages and colors. They were very 

 tame, and allowed us to approach them without showing the slightest sign of fear, even allowing 

 us to touch them with our hands. They seemed somewhat fatigued by the long walk they had 

 taken, and many of them, especially the young, laid down to rest within a few feet of us as soon 

 as they were allowed to stop. After satisfying our curiosity in regard to these animals, and 

 having their habits explained and commented upon by our interpreter in his peculiar forcible 

 manner, we were compelled to suggest to our hospitable friends that it was getting late, and that, 

 having a long distance to go, we must start; and if they proposed to sell us the carcass of a deer 

 it was now time, as the operation of slaughtering and dressing would occupy some time. After con- 

 siderable trouble we induced them to kill two for us. Two male yearlings were selected and caught 

 without difficulty, and led a short distance away from the herd. One of the sons stood directly 

 in front of the deer, holding him by the horns, while the other, with a dexterous motion of the 

 arm, stabbed him in the heart, holding the knife in the wound until the animal was dead, to 

 prevent the blood from escaping. The skin was removed in a few minutes, the head cut off and 

 the legs at the knees, and the entrails and blood carefully saved. We tried to buy- the skins, 

 which were very pretty, but could not induce the natives to part with them. This is somewhat 

 remarkable, in view of the fact that they readily disposed of the garments when made up. I have 



