1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. oil 



the argali or wild sheep ; rein-deer, bears, wolves, 

 dogs. 



The fox * is the most general object of the chace; 

 and they are found in great numbers, and of variety 

 of colours. The most common is the same in species 

 with the European, with this variation, that the 

 colours are more bright and shining ; some are of 

 a dark chesnut, others are striped with dark-coloured 

 bars ; others have the belly black, and the rest of the 

 body of a light chesnut. Some again are of a very 

 dark brown, some black, others of a stone colour ; 

 and there are a few quite white ; but these last are 

 very scarce. Their fur is exceedingly thick and 

 fine, and of a quality much superior to those either of 

 Siberia or America. A variety of artifices are made 

 use of by the hunters to catch this animal, which, 

 in all climates, seems to preserve the same character 

 of craftiness and cunning. Traps of different sorts, 

 some calculated to fall upon them, others to catch 

 tliem by the feet, others by the head, are amongst 

 the most common ; to which may be added, several 

 ingenious contrivances for taking them in nets. 

 Poisoned baits are likewise in use \ and the nux 

 vomica is the drug principally employed for this pur- 

 pose. Before their knowledge of the Russians, by 

 which they became acquainted with fire arms, they 

 also carried bows and arrows to the chace. But 

 since that period, almost every Kamtschadale is pro- 

 vided with a rifle-barrel gun ; and, though far from 

 being dexterous in the use of it, its superiority over 

 the former instruments he is ready to acknowledge. 



The sables t of Kamtschatka are said to be con- 

 siderably larger than those of Siberia, and their fur 

 much thicker and brighter, though not of so good a 

 black as those in the neighbourhood of the Olekma 

 and the Vitime t, a circumstance which depreciates 



* Cants vtilpes. t Mustela zibeUina. 



% Rivers emptyi ng themselves into the Lena, near its source, 



x 4* 



