108 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
employed only for hunting, but it appears as if even for this 
purpose it would soon go out of use. Some of the natives, 
however, use the bow with great accuracy of aim. The bows 
which I procured commonly consisted of a badly worked, slightly 
bent, elastic piece of wood, with the ends drawn together by 
a skin thong. Only some old bows had a finer form. They 
were larger, and made with care ; for instance, they were covered 
with birch-bark, and strengthened by an artistic plaiting of 
sinews on the outer side. The arrows are of many kinds, 
partly with bone or wooden, and partly with iron, points. 
Feathers are generally wanting. The shaft is a clumsily worked 
piece of wood. Crossbows are occasionally used. We have 
even seen bows for playthings, with carefully made, iron-pointed 
arrows. At the encampments near the winter station we found 
a couple of percussion-lock guns, with caps, powder and lead. 
They were evidently little used, and my attempt to induce the 
Chukches to undertake long journeys by promises of a gun 
with the necessary supply of powder and lead completely 
failed. When the Chukch, who carried our letters to Nischni 
Kolymsk, was after his return rewarded with a red shirt, a 
gun, caps, powder and ball, he wished to exchange the gun and 
ammunition for an axe. 
The principal livelihood of the Chukches is derived from 
hunting and fishing. Both are very abundant at certain seasons 
of the year, but are less productive during the cold season, in 
which case, in consequence of the little forethought of the 
savage, there arises great scarcity both of food and fuel and 
the means of melting snow. Of their hunting and fishing 
implements I cannot give so complete accounts as I should 
wish, because they very carefully avoided taking any of the 
Vegas hunters with them on their hunting excursions. 
The rough seal is taken with nets, made of strong seal-skin 
thongs. The nets are set in summer among the ground-ices 
along the shore. The animal gets entangled in the net and is 
