uffixes--inflections, prefixes and prepositions, as
expressive of relations, being completely unknown to them.
Other peculiarities characteristic of the Altaic languages
are the vocal harmony occurring in many of them, the
inability to have more than one consonant in the beginning
of a word, and the expression of the plural by a peculiar
affix, the case terminations being the same in the plural
as in the singular. The affinity between the different
branches of the Altaic stem is thus founded mainly on
analogy or resemblance in the construction of the
languages, while the different tongues in the material of
language (both in the words themselves and in the
expression of relations) show a very limited affinity or
none at all. The circumstance that the Samoyeds for the
present have as their nearest neighbours several
Finnish-Ugrian races (Lapps, Syrjaeni, Ostjaks, and
Voguls), and that these to a great extent carry on the
same modes of life as themselves, has led some authors to
assume a close affinity between the Samoyeds and the Fins
and the Finnish races in general. The speech of the two
neighbouring tribes however affords no ground for such a
supposition. Even the language of the Ostjak, which is the
most closely related to that of the Samoyeds, is separated
heaven-wide from it and has nothing in common with it,
except a small number of borrowed words (chiefly names of
articles from the Polar nomad's life), which the Ostjak
has taken from the language of his northern neighbour.
With respect to their language, however, the Samoyeds are
said to stand at a like distance from the other branches
of the stem in question. To what extent craniology or the
modern anthropology can more accurately determine the
affinity-relationship of the Samoyed to other tribes, is
still a question of the future.

[Illustration: BREEDING-PLACE FOR LITTLE AUKS. Foul Bay, on the West
Coast of Spitzbergen, after a photograph taken by A. Envall on the
30th August, 1872. ]

[Footnote 53: "Letter of Richard Finch to Sir Thomas Smith,
Governor; and to the rest of the Worshipful Companie of English
Merchants, trading into Russia." _Purchas_, iii. p. 534. ]

[Footnote 54: Mr. Serebrenikoff writes _Samodin_ instead of
_Samoyed_, considering the latter name incorrect. For _Samoyed_
means "self-eater," while _Samodin_ de