1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 303 



whole country, till it was dissipated by a shower of 

 cinders, that covered the ground to the distance of 

 thirty miles. M. Krascheninicoff, who was at this 

 time on a journey from Bolchoireka to the Kamt- 

 schatka ostrog, at no great distance from the moun- 

 tain, relates, that the eruption was preceded by an 

 alarming sound in the woods, which he thought the 

 forerunner of some dreadful storm or hurricane, till 

 three shocks of an earthquake, at about a minute's 

 interval each, convinced him of its real cause ; but 

 that he was hindered from approaching nearer the 

 mountain by the cinders that fell, and prevented 

 him from proceeding on his journey. 



The third volcano is on the top of the mountain of 

 Kamtschatka, which .is mentioned as by far the 

 highest in the peninsula. A thick smoke never ceases 

 to ascend from its summit, and it has frequent erup- 

 tions of the most violent and dreadful kind, some of 

 which were much talked of, and seemed to be fresh 

 in the memories of the Kamtschadales. 



The country is likewise said to contain numerous 

 springs of hot water. The only one that I had an 

 opportunity of seeing was at Natchikin ostrog, and 

 hath been already described. Krascheninicoff makes 

 mention of several others, and also of two very extra- 

 ordinary pits or wells, at the bottom of which the 

 water is seen to boil as in a caldron, with prodigious 

 force and impetuosity ; at the same time a dreadful 

 noise issues out of them, and so thick a vapour, that 

 a man cannot be seen through it. 



Of the trees which fell under our notice, the prin- 

 cipal are the birch, the poplar, the alder (with the 

 bark of which they stain their leather), many species 

 of the willow, but all small ; and two sorts of dwarfish 

 pines or cedars.* One of these grows upon the 

 coast, creeping along the ground, and seldom exceeds 



* Krascheninicoff says, that the tree here spoken of is a dwarf 

 cedar, for that there is not a pine in the peninsula. 



