X.] 
LETTERS SENT HOME. 
497 
Oscar. This was placed, along with several private sealed 
letters between a couple of pieces of board, and handed over to 
Menka with a request to give them to the Russian authorities 
at Markova. At first it appeared as if Menka understood the 
letter as some sort of further credentials for himself. For when 
he landed he assembled, in the presence of some of us, a circle 
of Chukches round himself, placed himself with dignity in their 
midst, opened out the paper, but so that he had it upside down, 
and read from it long sentences in Chukch to an attentive 
audience, astonished at his learning. Next forenoon we had 
another visit of the great and learned chief. New presents 
were exchanged, and he was entertained after our best ability. 
Finally he danced to the chamber-organ, both alone and 
together with some of his hosts, to the great entertainment of 
the Europeans and Asiatics present. 
As the state of the ice was still unaltered, I did not neglect 
the opportunity that now offered of making acquaintance with 
the interior of the country. With pleasure, accordingly, I gave 
Lieutenants Nordquist and Hovgaard permission to pay a visit 
to Menka’s encampment. They started on the morning of the 
8th October. Lieut. Nordquist has given me the following 
account of their excursion :— 
“On Tuesday, the 8th October, at 10 o’clock A.M. Lieut. 
Hovgaard and I travelled from Pitlekaj in dog-sledges into 
the interior in a S.S.E. direction. Hovgaard and I had 
each a Chukch as driver. Menka had with him a servant, who 
almost all the time ran before as guide. My comrade’s sledge, 
which was heaviest, was drawn by ten dogs, mine by eight, and 
Menka’s, which was the smallest and in which he sat alone, by 
five. In general the Chukches appear to reckon four or five 
dogs sufficient for a sledge with one person. 
“ The tundra, with marshes and streams scattered over it, 
was during the first part of our way only gently undulating, 
but the farther we went into the interior of the country the 
more uneven it became, and when, at 8 o’clock next morning, 
we reached the goal of our journey—Menka’s brother’s camp— 
K K 
