CHAP. X.] 
CHEISTMAS, 1878. 
523 
the dune has been recently carried away by the spring floods or 
by the furious winds which prevail here, and which easily gain 
the ascendency over the dry sand, bound together only by 
widely scattered Elymus-stalks. The largest crania belonged to 
a species nearly allied to the Balcena mysticehis. Crania of a 
species of Rachianectes are also found along with some bones of 
smaller varieties of the whale. No complete skeleton however 
has been found, but we brought home with us so large a quantity 
of the loose bones that the collection of whales’ bones alone 
would have formed a full cargo for a small vessel. These bones 
will be delineated and described by Professor. A. W. Malm in 
The Scientific Worh of the Vega Expedition. Special attention 
was drawn to a skeleton, belonging to the Balcena mysticehis, by 
its being still partially covered with skin, and by deep red, 
almost fresh, flesh adhering to those parts of it which were 
frozen fast in the ground. This skeleton lay at a place where 
the dune sand had recently been washed away and the coarse 
underlying sand uncovered, the whale-mwmmy also I suppose 
coming to light at the same time. That the whale in question 
had not stranded in the memory of man the Chukches assured 
me unanimously. In such a case we have here a proof that 
even portions of the flesh of gigantic sea-animals have been 
protected against putrefaction in the frozen soil of Siberia—a 
parallel to the mammoth-77i2^mm^es, though from a considerably 
more recent period. 
Christmas Eve was celebrated in the usual northern fashion. 
We had indeed neglected, as in the Expedition of 1872-73, to 
take with us any Christmas tree. But instead of it Dr. Kjoilman 
prevailed on our Chukch friends to bring with dog-sledges 
willow-bushes from the valleys lying beyond the mountains to 
the south. By means of these a bare driftwood stem was 
converted into a luxuriant, branchy tree which, to replace the 
verdure, was clothed with variegated strips of paper, and planted 
in the ’tweendecks, which after our enclosure in the ice had 
