X.] 
A DEAD MAN ON THE TUNDRA. 
505 
ice, with which the pieces of drift-ice were bound together, still 
everywhere unbroken. The Chukches, who visited the vessel 
in dog-sledges on the 28th October, informed us, however, that 
the sea a little to the east of us was still completely open. 
On the 15th October the hunter Johnsen returned from a 
hunting expedition quite terrified. He informed us that during 
his wanderings on the tundra, he had found a murdered man and 
brought with him, with the idea that, away here in the land of 
the Chukches, similar steps ought to be taken as in those lands 
which are blessed by a well-ordered judiciary, as s'pecies facti, 
some implements lying beside the dead man, among which 
was a very beautiful lance, on whose blade traces of having been 
inlaid in gold could still be discovered. Fortunately he had 
come with these things through the Chukch camp unobserved. 
From the description which was given me, however, I was able 
immediately to come to the conclusion that the question here 
was not of any murder, but of a dead man laid out on the 
tund%a. I requested Dr. Almquist to visit the place, in order 
that he might make a more detailed examination. He con¬ 
firmed my conjecture. As wolves, foxes, and ravens had already 
torn the corpse to pieces, the doctor considered that he, too, 
might take his share, and therefore brought home with him 
from his excursion, an object carefully wrapped up and concealed 
among the hunting equipment, namely, the Chukch’s head. It 
was immediately sunk to the sea-bottom, where it remained for 
a couple of weeks to be skeletonised by the Crustacea swarming 
there, and it now has its number in the collections brought 
home by the Vega. This sacrilege was never detected by the 
Chukches, and probably the wolves got the blame of it, as 
nearly every spring it was seen that the corpse, which had been 
laid out during autumn, lost its head during winter. It was? 
perhaps, more difficult to explain the disappearance of the 
lance, but of this, too, the maws of the wolves might well bear 
the blame. 
