214 



A VOYAGE TO 



•779- years employed in acquiring a partial and imperfect 

 knowledge*. 



Excepting this mark of confidence, and the fet of prints 

 I have already mentioned, we had brought nothing with 

 us that was in the lead worth his acceptance ; for it fcarce 

 deferves noticing, that I prevailed on his fon, a young boy, 

 to accept of a filver watch I happened to have about me; 

 and I made his little daughter very happy with two pair of 

 car-rings, of French pafle. Befides thefe trifles, I left with 

 Captain ShmalefF the thermometer I had ufed on my 

 journey ; and he promifed me, to keep an exact regifter of 

 the temperature of the air for one year, and to tranfmit it 

 to Mr. Muller, with whom he had the pleafure of being 

 acquainted. 



We dined this day at the Commander's, who, ftudious on 

 every occafion to gratify our curiofity, had, befides a num- 

 ber of dimes dreflcd in our own way, prepared a great va- 

 riety of others, after the Ruflian and Kamtfchadale manner. 

 The afternoon was employed in taking a view of the town, 

 and the adjacent country. Bolcherctik is fituatcd in a low 

 fwampy plain, that extends to the fea of Okotfk, being 

 about forty miles long, and of a confiderable breadth. It 



* On this occafion, Major Bchm permitted us to examine all the maps anJ charts 

 that were in his pofleflion. Thofe relating to the peninfulaof the Tfchutfti, were made 

 in conformity to the information collected by Plenifhncr, between the years 1760 and 

 1770. As the charts of Pleniflbtner were afterward made ufe of, according to Mr. 

 Coxe, in the compilation of the Gen< ral M 1 uflia, | ubliflied by the Academy in 

 1-776, it may be 1 . to obferve, that we found them exceedingly erroneous; 



and that the compilers of the Genera] Map feem to have been led into fomc miftakes 

 on his authority. J hofe, in which the i (lands on the coaft of America were laid down, 



found to contain nothing new, and to be mu accurate than thofe we faw ' 



at Oonalafhka. 



lies 



