494 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
the water an angling line, provided with a hook of bone, iron 
or copper, is thrown down, strips of the entrails of fish being 
employed as bait. A small metre-long staff with a single or 
double crook in the end was also used as a fishing implement. 
With this little leister the men cast up fish on the ice with 
incredible dexterity. When the ice became thicker, this fishing 
was entirely given up, while during the whole winter a species 
of cod and another of grayling were taken in great quantity 
in a lagoon situated nearer Behring’s Straits. The coregonus is 
also caught in the inland lakes, although, at least at this season 
of the year, only in limited quantity. 
SMELT FROM THE CHURCH PENINSULA. 
Osmerus eperlanus, Lin. 
Half the natural size. 
On the morning of the 6th October, we saw from the vessel 
an extraordinary procession moving forward on the ice. A 
number of Chukches drew a dog-sledge on which lay a man. 
At first we supposed it was a man who was very ill, and who 
came to seek the help of the physician, but when the proces¬ 
sion reached the vessel’s side, the supposed invalid climbed 
very nimbly up the ice-covered rope-ladder (our ice-stair was 
not yet in order), stepped immediately with a confident air, 
giving evidence of high rank, upon the half-deck, crossed himself, 
saluted graciously, and gave us to know in broken Russian that 
he was a man of importance in that part of the country. It 
