90 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
In the spring of 1879, after the snow was melted, we had 
further opportunities of seeing a large number of burying- 
places, or more correctly of places where dead Chukches had 
been laid out. They were marked by stones placed in a peculiar 
way, and were measured and examined in detail by Dr. Stuxberg, 
who gives the following description of them :— 
“ The Chukch graves on the heights south of Pitlekaj and 
Yinretlen, which were examined by me on the 4th and 7th 
July, 1879, were nearly fifty in number. Every grave consisted 
of an oval formed of large lying stones. At one end there was 
^ TENT FRAME AT PITLEKAJ, 
(After a drawing by G. Bore.) 
generally a large stone raised on its edge, andTrom the opposite 
end there went out one or two pieces of wood lying on the 
ground. The area within the stone circle was sometimes over¬ 
laid with small stones, sometimes free and overgrown with grass. 
At all the graves, at a distance of four to seven paces from the 
stone standing on its edge in the longitudinal axis of the grave 
or a little to the side of it, there was another smaller circle of 
stones inclosing a heap of reindeer horns, commonly containing 
also broken seals’ skulls and other fragments of bones. Only 
in one grave were found pieces of human bones. The graves 
were evidently very old, for the bits of wood at the ends were 
generally much decayed and almost wholly covered with earth. 
