BOOK NOTICE. 209 



these unhappy creatures is one of the marvels of nature. Ina branch of the Avatcha 

 18 inches deep, "hundreds were in sight, absolutely touching one another; and as 

 we crossed the river our horses nearly stepped upon them. * * They were for the 

 most part foul fish * * *, but others in good condition were to be found , and with a 

 little trouble I was able to pull out three good ten-pound fish in as many 

 minutes with a gaff. Any other method of fishing would have been useless.'* 

 A native present " went a little way up stream, and soon returned with half a 

 dozen fish, which were a great improvement upon our own selection ; for I can 

 apply no better term to it. * * * The traveller goes down to 



hook his supper out of the stream as naturally as he gathers the firewood to boil 

 his kettle." 



The Kamschatkan population, human and canine, live chiefly on salmon, and 

 during the summer so do the bears, and in winter horned cattle are foraged on 

 them. This last curiosity in farming is known in some other countries, and we 

 in India have seen milch and draught cattle fed on worse things. All the efforts of 

 man, beast, and bird have no material effect upon the numbers of the fish, and the 

 proportion consumed by all enemies is nothing to that which perishes from starva- 

 tion, shipwreck, or disease, and lies in rotting heaps by the banks of almost every 

 stream. 



The commonest species is Salmo Proteus, KamschatJcice, " Garbusa," 

 which, says Dr. Guillemard, signifies " Hump-back," and certainly ought to. 

 This fish starts in life with a good figure and a fine silvery complexion, set off by 

 a few spots on his tail; but even before spawning his back begins to get humped,, 

 the natives say from the effect of his efforts in ascending the stream (which 

 can scarcely be accepted as causa vera et sufficiens). At the same time his snout 

 turns down and his chin turns up, and as a "kelt" he is the very Punch of the 

 waters, while his coloration, livid, irregularly blotched with blood red, is rather 

 that of a Clown. This is the most abundant species and least esteemed, thought 

 eatable enough when "fresh run." It is chiefly used to feed dogs (and sometimes 

 cattle), and runs to about 15 lbs. weight. 



The largest and best fish is the " King Salmon," or " Tcbervitchi," which attains 

 a length of four feet and a weight of 50 or 60 lbs. avoirdupois, and is said sometimes 

 to exceed these dimensions. 



Dr. Guillemard mentions several others, and is rather perplexed about one, called 

 Gultzi, which appeared to him to be a large char. The name is ascribed by several 

 writers to a true Salmon (S. callaris), and is probably loosely applied bv the natives 

 to two or more species. One Kamschatkan Salmon {Onchorhy nchus lagocephalus) 

 turns bright red all over in the " kelt " stage, i. e. after spawning. Another, the 

 " Kisuchi." {Onchorhy nchus Sanguinolentus), is so fat that the natives "try out" 

 the oil by putting heaps of the fish in a canoe beside a bonfire, with water quant, 

 suff., and dropping red hot stones in till the water boils and the oil rises to the 

 surface. The civilization of this Russian dependency must be rather low when 

 the inhabitants are reduced to this very primitive sort of cauldron close to navig- 

 able rivers. 



The " Marchesa's" shore-party made a survey of the chief of these, the Kams- 

 chatka, and recorded some observations about the fine group of volcanoes near its 



