THE CHUKCHEE.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE following account of the Chukchee tribe contains chiefly the results of my own observations, made during a protracted stay in the Kolyma district from 1890 to 1898; and later during a journey to Kamchatka, Anadyr, and the Chukchee Peninsula, in 1900-01. From 1895 to 1898 the work was performed in connection with the Sibiryakoff Expedition, and part of the material was published in Russian by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.¹ The expedition of 1900-01 formed part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. The collections made during this period are deposited in the American Museum of Natural History.

On these journeys I visited nearly all parts of the country inhabited by the Reindeer Chukchee, from central Kamchatka and the Upper Omolon to Chaun Bay and Cape Chukotsky; but I saw only the maritime villages that are located on the Pacific coast, between the mouth of the Anadyr and Indian Point. These are inhabited by Chukchee and by Asiatic Eskimo.

In my protracted intercourse with the northern Reindeer camps I had ample opportunity to see people from Arctic villages, and was able to obtain a variety of information regarding their customs and manner of living.

The material life of the Reindeer Chukchee is quite uniform throughout all the extensive territory occupied by their camps. The same may be said of the maritime villages, which have exactly the same material culture, whether they belong to Chukchee or to Eskimo tribes.

In order to avoid repetition, I have found it advisable to describe together the main features of the material life of both Maritime Chukchee and Eskimo. The provenience of the specimens illustrated, however, is indicated in the legends to the figures.