[Footnote 234: Martin Sauer, _An account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore Joseph Billings_, London, 1802, p. 103. A. Ermann, _Reise um die Erde_, Berlin, 1833-48, D. 1, B. 2, p. 258. Ermann's statement, that the knowledge of the existence of these islands was concealed from the government up to the year 1806, is clearly incorrect. ] [Footnote 235: Of course the earth here at an inconsiderable depth under the surface is constantly frozen, but I have nowhere seen such alternating layers of earth and ice, crossed by veins of ice, as Hedenstroem in his oft-quoted work (_Otrywki o Sibiri_, p. 119) says he found at the sea-coast. Probably such a peculiar formation arises only at places where the spring floods bring down thick layers of mud, which cover the beds of ice formed during the winter and protect them for thousands of years from melting. I shall have an opportunity of returning to the interesting questions relating to this point. ] [Footnote 236: Since we discovered the Chukches also bury their dead by laying them out on the _tundra_, we have begun to entertain doubts whether the collection of bones delineated here was actually a grave. Possibly these mounds were only the remains of fireplaces, where the Chukches had used as fuel train-drenched bones, and which they bad afterwards for some reason or other endeavoured to protect from the action of the atmosphere. ] [Footnote 237: H. Rink, _Groenland geographisk og statistisk beskrevet_, Bd. 2, Copenhagen, 1857, p. 344. ] [Footnote 238: C. von Dittmar, _Bulletin hist.-philolog, de l'acad. de St. Petersbourg_, XIII. 1856, p. 130. ] [Footnote 239: Krascheninnikov, _Histoire et Description du Kamtschatka_, Amsterdam 1770, II. p. 95. A. Ennan, _Reise urn die Erde_, D.1, B.2, p. 255. ] [Footnote 240: _Ankali_ signifies in Chukch dwellers on the coast, and is now used to denote the Chukches living on the coast. A similar word, Onkilon, was formerly used as the name of the Eskimo tribe that lived on the coast of the Polar Sea when the Chukch migration reached that point. ] [Footnote 241: The walrus now appears to be very rare in the sea north of Behring's Straits, but formerly it must have been found there in large numbers, and made that region a veritable paradise for every hunting tribe. While we during our long stay there saw only a few walruses, Cook, in 1778, saw an enormous number, and an interesting drawing of walruses is to be found in the account of his third voyage. _A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc._ Vol. III. (by James King), London, 1784, p. 259, pl. 52. ]