2[)8 cook's voyage to oct. 



than the rest ; the Bolchoireka, or Great River, so 

 called from bokhoia, which signifies great, and reka, a, 

 river; the river Kamtschatka, and the Awatska. The 

 first empties itself into the sea of Okotsk, and is na- 

 vigable for the Russian galliots upward of five leagues 

 from its mouth, or within nine miles of Bolcheretsk, 

 a town situated at the conflux of the Goltsoffka and 

 the Bistraia, which here lose themselves in the Bol- 

 choireka. The Bistraia itself is no inconsiderable 

 river. It derives its source from the same mountain 

 with the river Kamtschatka, and, by taking a direct 

 contrary course, affords the Kamtschadales the means 

 of transporting their goods by water, in small canoes, 

 almost across the whole peninsula. The river Kamt- 

 schatka, after maintaining a course of near three 

 hundred miles from south to north, winds round to 

 the eastward, in which direction it empties itself into 

 the ocean, a little to the southward of Kamtschatkoi 

 Noss. Near the mouth of the Kamtschatka, to the 

 north-west, lies the great lake called Nerpitsch, from 

 nerpi, a Kamtschadale word signifying a seal, with 

 which this lake abounds. About twenty miles up 

 the river, reckoning from the mouth of the lake, is 

 a fort called Nishnei Kamtschatska ostrog, where the 

 Russians havo built an hospital and barracks, and 

 which, we were informed, is become the principal 

 mart in this country. 



The river Awatska arises from the mountains 

 situated between the Bolchoireka and the Bistraia, and 

 running, from north-west to south-east, a course of 

 one hundred miles, falls into the bay of Awatska. 

 The Tigil is likewise a river of considerable size, 

 rising amidst some very high mountains, which lie 

 under the same parallel with Kamtschatkoi Noss, and, 

 running in an even course from south-east to north- 

 west, falls into the sea of Okotsk. All the other 

 rivers of this peninsula, which are almost infinite in 

 number, are too small to deserve a particular enu- 

 meration. 



