xr.] 
EXCURSION TO NAJTSKAJ AND TJAPKA. 
21 
At 6 o’clock A.M. we reached Rirajtinop, where we found 
Notti, a serviceable, talented, and agreeable youth. The village 
Rirajtinop, which formerly consisted of a great many tents, now 
had only one tent, Notti s, and it was poor enough. It gave the 
inhabitants only a slight protection against wind and cold. 
Among household articles in the tent I noticed a face-mask of 
wood, less shapeless than those which according to Whymper’s 
drawings are found among the natives along the river Youcon, 
in the territory of Alaska, and according to Dr. Simpson among 
the est-Eskimo. I learned afterwards that this mask came 
from Pak, Behring’s Straits, whither it was probably carried 
from the opposite American shore. 
“ The village Irgunnuk lies from three to four hundred metres 
from Birajtinop, and consists of five tents, one of which two days 
THE SLEEPING CHAMBER IN A CHUKCH TENT. 
(After a drawing by the seaman Hansson.) 
before had been removed from Yinretlen. The tents are as 
usual placed on earthy eminences, and have if possible the en¬ 
trance a couple of paces from some steep escarpment, manifestly 
in order that the door-opening may not be too much obstructed 
with snow. I reckon the population of Irgunnuk at forty persons. 
‘‘ Off this village the ice is broken up even close to the land 
into torosses, five to six metres high, which form a chain which 
closely follows the shore for a distance of five to six hundred 
metres to the eastward. The coast from Irgunnuk to Najtskaj 
runs in a straight line, is low, and only now and then interrupted 
by small earthy eminences, which all bear traces of old dwellings. 
Each of these heights has its special name : first TJelkantinop, 
then Tiumgatti, and lastly Tiungo, two miles west of Najtskaj. 
