520 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. x. 
of the Chukch country we did not see a single whale. On . the 
other hand, masses of whales’ bones were found thrown up on 
the beach. At first I did not bestow much attention upon 
them, thinking they were the bones of whales that had been 
killed during the recent whale-fishing period. I soon found 
however that this could not have been the case. For the bones 
had evidently been washed out of the sandy dune running along 
the beach, which had been deposited at a time when the present 
coast lay ten to twenty metres below the surface of the sea^ 
thus hundreds or thousands of years ago, undoubtedly before the 
time when the north coast of Asia was first inhabited by man- 
The dune sand is, as recently exposed profiles show, quite free 
from other kitchen-midden remains than those which occur 
upon its surface. The whales’ bones in question were thus 
suhfossil. Their number was so great, that in the systematic 
examination of the beach ih the immediate neighbourhood of 
the vessel, which I undertook during spring with the assistance 
of Di\ Kj oilman and half a dozen of the sailors, thirty neck- 
bones and innumerable other bones of the whale were found in 
a stretch of from four to five kilometres. Of course masses of 
bones are still concealed in the sand; and a large number of 
lower jaw-bones, ribs, shoulder-blades, and vertebrge had been 
used for runner-shoes, tent-frames, spades, picks and other 
implements. A portion, after being exposed for several years to 
the action of the air, had undergone decay. The bones are there¬ 
fore found in greatest number at those places where the sand of 
