512 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[CHAP.- 
was a large wooden chest, in which the Eemington guns, which 
were carried for safety in excursions from the vessel, and other 
iron articles which the observer had with him, were placed before 
he entered the observatory. 
The building of Tintinyaranga was followed by the Chukches 
with great interest. When they saw that we did not intend 
to live there, but that rare, glancing metal instruments were 
set up in it, and that a wonderfully abundant flood of light in 
comparison with their tent illumination was constantly main¬ 
tained inside with a kind of light quite unknown to them 
(stearine candles and photogen lamps) ’ a curious uneasiness 
began to prevail among them, which we could not quiet with 
the language of signs mixed with a Chukch word or two, to 
which our communications with the natives were at that time 
confined. Even farther on in the year, when an efficient though 
word-poor international language had gradually been formed 
between us, they made inquiries on this point, yet with consider¬ 
able indifference. All sensible people among them had evidently 
already come to the conclusion that it was profitless trouble 
to seek a reasonable explanation of all the follies which the 
strange foreigners, richly provided with many earthly gifts but 
by no means with practical sense, perpetrated. In any case 
it was with a certain amazement and awe that they, when they 
exceptionally obtained permission, entered one by one through 
the doors in order to see the lamps burn and to peep into 
the tubes. Many times even a dog-team that had come a long 
way stopped for a few moments at the ice-house to satisfy the 
owner’s curiosity, and on two occasions in very bad drifting 
weather we were compelled to give shelter to a wanderer who 
had gone astray. 
"When this ice-house was ready and hourly observations began 
in it, life on board took the stamp which it afterwards retained 
in the course of the winter. In order to give the reader an idea 
of our every-day life, I shall reproduce here the spirited sketch 
