82 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. XII. 
Chukches, both reindeer-owning and those with fixed dwellings, 
numbered 2,000 persons. Thus during the last two centuries, 
if these estimates are correct, this Polar race has doubled its 
numbers. 
In order to give the reader an idea of the language of the 
Chukches, I have in a preceding chapter given an extract from 
the large vocabulary which Nordquist has collected. There 
appear to be no dialects differing very much from each other. 
Whether foreign words borrowed from other Asiatic languages 
have been adopted in Chukch we have not been able to make 
out. It is certain that no Russian words are used. The language 
strikes me as articulate and euphonious. It is nearly allied to 
the Koryak, but so different from other, both East-Asiatic and 
American, tongues, that philologists have not yet succeeded in 
clearing up the relationship of the Chukches to other races. 
Like most other Polar tribes, the Chukches now do not belong 
to any unmixed race. This one is soon convinced of, if he con¬ 
siders attentively the inhabitants of a large tent-village. Some 
are tall, with tallowlike, raven-black hair, brown complexion, 
high aquiline nose—in short, with an exterior that reminds us 
of the descriptions we read of the North American Indians. 
Others again by their dark hair, slight beard, sunk nose or 
rather projecting cheek-bones and oblique eyes, remind us 
distinctly of the Mongolian race ; and finally we meet among 
them with very fair faces, with features and complexion which 
lead us to suspect that they are descendants of runaways or 
prisoners of war of purely Russian origin. The most common 
type is—straight, coarse, black hair of moderate length; the 
brow tapering upwards; the nose finely formed, but with its 
root often flattened: eyes by no means small; well-developed 
black eyebrows; projecting cheeks often swollen by frostbite, 
which is specially observable when the face is looked at from the 
side ; light, slightly brown complexion, which in the young women 
is often nearly as red and white as in Europeans. The beard is 
