470 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. X. 
greatly diminished in this way, but instead it did not have the 
least injurious action on the air on the vessel, a circumstance 
specially deserving of attention for its influence on the state of 
health on board. Often under this tent in the dark days of 
winter there blazed a brisk smithy fire, round which the 
Chukches crowded in curious wonder at the skill with which 
the smith fashioned the glowing iron. Here the cook dealt out 
to the Chukches the soup and meat that were left over, and the 
loaves of bread which at every baking were baked for them. 
Here was our reception saloon, where tobacco and sugar were 
distributed to the women and children, and where sometimes, if 
seldom, a frozen hunter or fisherman was treated to a little 
spirits. Here pieces of wood and vertebrae of the whale were 
valued and purchased, and here tedious negotiations were 
carried on regarding journeys in dog-sledges in different 
directions. ! 
The violent motion which took place in the ice during the - 
night before the 15th December, gave us a sharp warning that 
our position in the open road was by no means so secure as was 
desirable, but that there was a possibility that the vessel might 
be nipped suddenly and without any previous warning. If such 
a misfortune had happened, the crew of the Vega would certainly 
have had no difficulty in getting to land over the ice. But the 
yield of hunting appeared to be so scanty, and the Chukches 
were, as almost always, so destitute of all stock of jwovisions— 
for they literally obey the command to take no thought for to¬ 
morrow—that there was every probability that we, having come 
safe ashore, would die of hunger, if no provisions were saved from 
the vessel. This again, as the principal part of the provisions 
was of course down in the hold, would have been attended with 
great difficulty, if the Vega had been suddenly in the night cut 
into by the ice at the water-line. In order as far as possible to 
secure ourselves against the consequences of such a misfortune, 
