118 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
a very extensive trade, and evidently are good mercantile men. 
According to von Dittmar (loc. cit. p. 129) there exists, or still 
existed in 1856, a steady, slow, but regular transport of goods 
along the whole north coast of Asia and America, by which 
Russian goods were conveyed to the innermost parts of Polar 
America, and furs instead found their way to the bazaars of 
Moscow and St. Petersburg. This traffic is carried on at five 
market places, of which three are situated in America, one on 
the islands at Behring’s Straits, and one at Anjui near Kolyma. 
The last-mentioned is called by the Chukches “ the fifth beaver 
market.” ^ 
The Chukches’ principal articles of commerce consist of seal¬ 
skin, train-oil, fox-skins and other furs, walrus tusks, whalebone, 
&c. Instead they purchase tobacco, articles of iron, reindeer 
skin and reindeer flesh, and, when it can be had, spirit. A 
bargain is concluded ver}^ cautiously after long-continued con¬ 
sultation in a whispering tone between those present. I 
employed spirit as an article for barter only in the last 
necessity, but they soon observed that the desire to become 
owner of an uncommon article of art or antiquity overcame my 
detennination, and they soon learned to avail themselves of 
this, especially as in all cases I made full payment for the 
article and gave the fire-water into the bargain. 
The lamp (see the figures at pp. 22, 23), with which light is 
maintained in the tent, consists of a flat trough of wood, bone 
^ Dr. John Simpson gives good information regarding the American 
markets in his Observations on the Western Esquimaux. He enumerates 
three market places in America besides that nt Behring’s Straits. At the 
markets people are occupied also with dancing and games, Avhich are 
carried on in such a lively manner that the market people scarcely sleep 
during the vhole time. Matiuschin gives a very lively sketch of the 
market at Aiijiii, to which, in 1821, the Chukches still went fully armed 
with spears, hows, and arrows (WrangePs Reise^ i. p. 270), and a visit to it 
in 1868 is described by C. von Neumann, who took part as Astronomer in 
von MaydelPs expedition to Chukch Land (Eine Messe ini Hoclinorden; 
Das Auslandi 1880, p. 861). 
