"8. Ranau, from Yinretlen, also said that Kolyutschin Bay is always open in summer.
"9. Ettiu, from the village Nettej, between Irgunnuk and Behring's Straits, stated that the sea at Nettej is open in summer, independently of the wind, in winter only when the wind is southerly.
"10. Vankatte, from Nettej, stated that the sea there becomes open during the month "Tautinyadlin," that is, the latter part of May and the beginning of June, and is again covered with ice during the month "Kutscshkau," or October and November.
"11. Kepljeplja, from the village Irgunnuk, lying five English miles east of the Vega's winter quarters at Pitlekaj, said that the sea off these villages is open all summer, except when northerly winds prevail. On the other hand, he said that farther westward, as at Irkaipij, ice could nearly always be seen from the land.
"12. Kapatljin, from Kingetschkun, a village between Irgunnuk and Behring's Straits, stated on the 11th January that there was then open water at that village. He said further, that Behring's Straits in winter are filled with ice when the wind is southerly, but open when the wind is northerly. The same day a Chukch from Nettej-Kengitschkau, also between Irgunnuk and Behring's Straits, stated that ice then lay off that village. He confirmed Kapatljin's statement regarding Behring's Straits.
"13. Kvano, from Uedlje, near Behring's Straits, said that there the sea is always open from May to the end of September."
On the 13th March we came to know that spirits, too, form an article of commerce here. For, without having obtained any liquor from the Vega, the Chukches at Yinretlen had the means of indulging in a general fuddle, and that even their friendly disposition gives way under the effects of the intoxication we had a manifest proof, when the day after they came on board with blue and yellow eyes, not a little seedy and ashamed. In autumn a tall and stout Chukch giantess, who then paid us a visit, informed us that her husband had been murdered in a drunken quarrel.
Sledges of considerable size, drawn by reindeer, began after the middle of March to pass the Vega in pretty large numbers. They were laden with reindeer skins and goods bought at the Russian market-places, and intended for barter at Behring's Straits.
The reindeer Chukches are better clothed, and appear to be in better circumstances and more independent than the coast Chukches, or, as they ought to be called in correspondence with the former name, the dog Chukches. As every one owns a reindeer herd, all must follow the nomad mode of living, but at the same time they carry on traffic between the savages in the northernmost parts of America and the Russian fur-dealers in Siberia, and many pass their whole lives in commercial journeys. The principal market is held annually during the mouth of March, on an island in the river Little Anjui, 250 versts from Nischni Kolymsk. The barter goes on in accordance with a normal price-list, mutually agreed upon by the Russian merchants and the oldest of the Chukches. The market is inaugurated on the part of the Russians by a mass performed by the priest,[260] who always accompanies the Russian crown commissioner, and in the Chukches' camp with buffoonery by one of the Chukch Shamans. At such a market there is said to be considerable confusion, to judge by the spirited description which Wrangel gives of it (Reise, i. p. 269). We ought, however, to remember that this description refers to the customs that prevailed sixty years ago. Now, perhaps, there is a great change there. In the commercial relations in north-eastern Asia in the beginning of this century, we have probably a faithful picture of the commerce of the Beormas in former days in north-eastern Europe. Even the goods were probably of the same sort at both places, perhaps, also, the stand-points of the culture of the two races.
Besides the traders, a large number of Chukches from Kolyutschin Island and other villages to the west, travelled past us with empty sledges, to which were harnessed only a few dogs. They returned in the course of a few days with their sledges fully laden with fish which they said they had caught in a lagoon situated to the eastward. They also sometimes sold a delicious variety of the Coregonus taken in a lake in the interior some distance from the coast.