SACRIFICIAL PLACE ON YALMAL. 
207 
IV.] 
strand“bank. Nor did the dredge bring up any stones from the 
sea-bottom off the coast, a circumstance which, among other 
things, is remarkable, because it appears to show that the strand- 
ice from the Obi and Yenisej does not drift down to and melt 
in this part of the Kara Sea. Nor do the sand beds contain any 
sub-fossil shells, as is the case with the sand beds of the Yenisej 
tundra. ‘Noah’s wood’ also appears to be absent here. To 
judge from our observations at this place, the peninsula between 
the Gulf of Obi and the Kara Sea thus differs very essentially 
from the tundra lying east of the Yenisej. 
“ We saw no inhabitants, but everywhere along the beach 
numerous traces of men—some of them barefoot—of reindeer, 
dogs and Sarnoyed sleighs, were visible. On the top of the 
strand-bank was found a place of sacrifice, consisting of forty- 
live bears’ skulls of various ages placed in a heajD, a large 
number of reindeer skulls, the lower jaw of a walrus, &c. From 
most of the bears’ skulls the canine teeth were broken out, and 
the lower jaw was frequently entirely wanting. Some of the 
bones were overgrown with moss and lay sunk in the earth; 
others had, as the adhering flesh showed, been placed there during 
the present year. In the middle of the heap of bones stood four 
erect pieces of wood. Two consisted of sticks a metre in length 
with notches cut in them, serving to bear up the reindeer and 
bears’ skulls, which were partly placed on the points of the 
sticks or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted on the sticks 
by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two others, which 
clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice, consisted 
of driftwood roots, on which some carvings had been made to 
distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces 
of wood, intended to represent the eyes and mouth, had recently 
been besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of 
bones the entrails of a newly-killed reindeer. Close beside were 
found the remains of a fireplace, and of a midden, consisting of 
reindeer bones of various kinds and the lower jaws of bears. 
