514 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. X. 
The daily market begins. They have various things to offer, 
which they know to be of value to us, as weapons, furs, ornaments, 
playthings, fish, bones of the whale, algse, vegetables, &c. For 
all this only 'kauka’ is now asked. To-day the supply of 
whales’ bones is large, in consequence of our desire, expressed 
on previous days, to obtain them. One has come with two 
vertebrae, one with a rib or some fragments of it, one with 
a shoulder-blade. They are not shy in laying heavy loads on 
their dogs. 
“ After the close of the promenade and the traffic with the 
natives, the gunroom personnel have begtm their labours. Some 
keep in their cabins, others in the gunroom itself. The magnetical 
and meteorological observations made the day before are tran¬ 
scribed and subjected to a preliminary working-out, the natural 
history collections are examined and looked over, studies and 
authorship are prosecuted. The work is now and then inter¬ 
rupted by conversation partly serious, partly jocular. From the 
engine-room in the neighbourhood we hear the blows of ham¬ 
mers and the rasping of files. In the ’tweendecks, pretty well 
heated, but not very well lighted, some of the crew are employed 
at ordinary ship’s work; and in the region of the kitchen the 
cook is just in the midst of his preparations for dinner. He 
is in good humour as usual, but perhaps grumbles a little at the 
‘mosucks’ (a common name on board for the Chukches), who will 
not give him any peace by their continual cries for 'mimiF (water.) 
" The forenoon passes in all quietness and stillness. Immediately 
after noon nearly all the gunroom people are again on deck, 
promenading backwards and forwards. It is now very lively. 
It is the crew’s meal-time. The whole crowd of Chukches are 
collected at the descent to their apartment, the lower deck. 
One soup basin after the other comes up; they are immediately 
emptied of their contents by those who in the crowd and 
confusion are fortunate enough to get at them. Bread and 
pieces of meat and bits of sugar are distributed assiduously, 
and disappear with equal speed. Finally, the cook himself 
appears with a large kettle, containing a very large quantity 
of meat soup, which the Chukches like starving animals throw 
themselves upon, baliug into them with spoons, empty pre¬ 
serve tins, and above all with the hands. Notwithstanding 
the exceedingly severe cold a woman here and there has un¬ 
covered one arm and half her breast in order not to be embarrassed 
by the wide reindeer-skin sleeve in her attempts to get at 
the contents of the kettle. The spectacle is by no means a 
pleasant one. 
