KAMTSCHATKA. '^83 



small roots, and this root, which supplies the great- 

 est part of Europe in the place of corn, might be 

 here of the greatest importance. Brandy might 

 be distilled from it, and provide for the chief want 

 of this colony. But there is still a greater want of 

 hands and industry than of productions and pro- 

 ductive power in the earth, and even what has 

 once been undertaken with advantage, as, for 

 instance, the boiling of salt, is neglected. Kru- 

 senstern justly observes, that the earth is cultivated 

 too late. The mountain of transition slate, which 

 separates the harbour from the bay of Avatscha, 

 has slate which would conveniently supply the 

 town with stone for building ; and lime might be 

 burned out of shells, if lime-stone cannot be found. 

 Innumerable smoking volcanoes rise along the 

 ridge, which, extending between two continents, 

 in the form of an arch, constitute the chain of the 

 Aleutian islands, and tower, in pyramidical forms, 

 above the clouds. Torn, rugged rocks, form, in 

 broken lines, the ridge which unites these threat- 

 ening colossuses. The ridge appears to decline, 

 from the American continent, over the peninsula 

 of Alashka ; and the chain of islands towards Asia. 

 These islands become of less extent towards the 

 west, and less frequent, and the last of them, 

 Beering*s Island, inclines in a gentle slope towards 

 the Kamtschatka coast. 



The two peaks of the peninsula of Alashka are 

 of extraordinary height. The first, in the north- 



