mechanical instruments* 
73 
Occasion, they use dry moss for a wick. With this fire they 
not only light the jurt, hut warm themselves, by taking it 
under their coats, and closing the opening, so that the heat 
cannot escape. In this manner they can make themselves as 
hot as if they were in a sweating-bath. The stone of which 
these lamps are made is very soft, and may be hollowed out with 
others of greater hardness, not merely for this purpose, but also 
for deep pots, in which they boil their fish. They use them 
however, but seldom, preferring mostly the iron and copper 
kettles, which they procure from the Russians. 
The wooden utensils of these islanders are water-vats, made 
of split planks. The fat of the whales and the seals they pre¬ 
serve in bladders ; the other dry provisions, in baskets, or sacks 
of braided grass. 
Knives and axes they procure from the Russians; but they 
are not well acquainted w ith the use of the latter, to which 
they fasten a wooden handle, so that they can chip with them as 
with a hatchet, but neither split nor hew; they rive their large 
trees therefore by means of wooden w r edges. 
Nothing is more tedious and fatiguing, than their carpenter’s 
and joiner’s work, in making their baskets, their arrows, and 
the hulks of their baidars. One whole year and more is 
spent in building such a small boat, on which account they 
prefer purchasing it at a dear rate. The bare collecting 
together as much wood on the shore as is requisite for a baidar, 
is attended with infinite toil and trouble. The main part is the 
keel, 21 feet in length, which is always composed of two or 
three pieces. To this they fasten, by means of split whale- 
' bone, ribs of willow and alder-branches, on the upper extre¬ 
mities of which they place a frame with cross-bars, which in 
the middle is a foot and half broad, and binds the whole baidar 
together. Over the whole they stretch the hide of a sea- 
lion, or a large sea-dog, leaving on the top a round but 
smallish opening, in w hich the rower sits. This baidar is so 
light in all its parts, that altogether it does not weigh much 
above thirty pounds. The paddles are very long, and have shovels 
at both ends. They are held by the row era in such a manner, 
that they can row alternately with one shovel on the one side, 
and another on the other. 
The weapons of the islanders consist merely of darts and 
spears, which, as they use them for different purposes, are of! 
various sizes. The first sort, which are used against men and 
animals, are four foot long, having a bit of lava affixed as a point, 
which is an inch and half long, and three quarters of an inch 
broad. The second sort is smaller than the first, and is only used 
against animals ; points of bone instead of lava are tied on them 
SARYTSC HEW, VQL ( II.] K 
