122 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[oHAr. 
implement. An improved form of it consisted of a wooden pin 
on whose lower part a lense-formed and perforated block of wood 
was fixed. This block served as fly-wheel and weight. Across 
the wooden pin ran a perforated cross-bar which was fastened 
with two sinews to its upper end. By carrying this cross-bar 
backwards and forwards the pin could be turned round with 
great rapidity. The implement appears to me the more re¬ 
markable as it shows a new way of using the stone or brick 
lenses, which are often found in graves or old house-sites from 
the Stone Age. 
Among the Chukches, as among many other wild races, 
lucifer matches have obtained the honour of being the first 
of the inventions of the civilised races that have been recognised 
as indisputably superior to their own. A request for lucifer 
matches was therefore one of the most common of those with 
which our friends at Behring’s Straits tormented us during 
winter, and they were willing for a single box to offer things 
that in comparison were very valuable. Unfortunately we had 
no superfluous supply of this necessary article, or perhaps I 
ought to say fortunately, for if the Chukches for some years 
were able to get a couple of boxes of matches for a walrus tusk, 
I believe that with their usual carelessness they would soon 
completely forget the use of their own fire-implements. 
Among household articles I may further mention the 
following:— 
The liide-scraper (fig. 1, p. 117) is of stone or iron and fastened 
to a wooden handle. With this tool the moistened hide is 
cleaned very particularly, and is then rubbed, stretched, and 
kneaded so carefully that several days go to the preparation 
of a single reindeer skin. That this is hard work is also shown 
O 
by the woman who is employed at it in the tent dripping with 
perspiration. While thus employed she sits on a part of the 
skin and stretches out the other part with the united help of 
the hands and the bare feet. When the skin has been 
