ce from
their mouths, but the former coast population has withdrawn to the
interior of the country or died out,[271] and the north coast of Asia
first begins again to be inhabited at Chaun Bay, namely, by the
tribe with whom we came in contact during the latter part of the
coast voyage of the _Vega_ in 1878 and during the wintering.

I have already, it is true, given an account of various traits of
the Chukches' disposition and mode of life, but I believe at all
events that a more exhaustive statement of what the _Vega_ men
experienced in this region will be interesting to my readers, even
if in the course of it I am sometimes compelled to return to
subjects of which I have already treated.

In West-European writings the race, which inhabits the
north-easternmost portion of Asia, is mentioned for the first time,
so far as I know, by WITSEN, who in the second edition of his work
(1705, p. 671) quotes a statement by VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, that the
inhabitants of the northernmost portions of Siberia are called
_Tsjuktsi_, without, however, giving any detailed description of the
people themselves. In maps from the end of the seventeenth century
names are still inscribed on this portion of land which were
borrowed from the history of High Asia, as "Tenduc," "Quinsai,"
"Catacora," &c., but these are left out in VAN KEULEN'S atlas of
1709, and instead there stands here _Zuczari_. From about the same
time we fall in with some accounts of the Chukches in the narrative
of the distinguished painter CORNELIS DE BRUIN'S travels in Russia.
A Russian merchant, MICHAEL OSTATIOF, who passed fourteen years in
travelling in Siberia, gave de Bruin some information regarding the
countries he had travelled through; among others he spoke of
_Korakie_ and _Socgtsie_ The latter were sketched as a godless pack,
who worship the devil and carry with them then fathers' bones to be
used in their magical arts. The same Russian who made these
statements had also come in contact with "stationary" (settled)
Soegtsi, so called "because they pass the whole winter hibernating,
lying or sitting in their tents."[272] I have found the first
somewhat detailed accounts of the race in the note on p. 110 of the
under-quoted work, _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_, Leyden,
1726. They are founded on the statements of Swedish prisoners of
war in Siberia.

The Russians, however, had made a much earlier acquaintance with the
Chukches; for during their conquest of