70 SlUEklA. 



Ussnri-Jjittoial coiuitry to IfX) inhabitants, 55 hoad of horned cattle, anil a little nioie than 

 30 iihci'.\) and ^'oat.<. But of comso tlii'se {Vniios are rapidly growing with the extremely no- 

 ticeahlc iiK'irasc nC ludsperity oi' thi' iimnigranls in the Ussuri country, who latterly have 

 even begun to pay oil all at once the loans ol' money given them on their immigration. 



Completely different is the character of the I'onrlh district of the Amour-Littoral region 

 wlii'li may bo called the Okhotsk-Kamchatka. This iioi1,h-ea.stem part of the region under 

 consideration, embracing, beginning with the basin of the river Qda, the watersheds of all 

 the rivers falling into the Okhotsk and Behring seas, occupies an area of more than 27,000 

 square geographical miles. The Okholsk-Kanichatka country is geographically composed of 

 the somewhat narrow iKirth-wcstcrn liitdtal of the Sea of Okhotsk, the districts of Udsk, 

 Okliotsk and Ghizhiginsk, the peninsula of Kamchatka or district of Petropavlovsk, Chukot 

 land and the islands of the Okhotsk and Behring seas. In the first part the Stanovoi range, 

 with not more than an average height of 3,000 feet, divides the Littoral Territory from that 

 of Yakutsk, sending forth considerable offshoots, more or less filling up the shore zone, which 

 is on the whole mountainous and in some places descends abruptly to the sea, especially 

 between the basins of the Uda and Okliota. The basin of the Uda and the whole of the 

 extensive bay of that uam(\ penetrating between Cape St. Alexander and the port of Ayansk 

 deep into the mainland by its inlets of Udsk, Tugursk, Ulbansk and St. Nicholas, in front of 

 which lie the uninhabited but elevated and fairly extensive Shantar islands, are nevertheless 

 the best part of the Okhotsk-Kamchatka country, while the wide and roomy northern littoral 

 of the Okhotsk Sea, with its Ghizhiginsk and Penzhinsk inlets entering deeply into the main- 

 land to the north-east, represents the most unsuitable spots in the country for the purposes 

 of settlement on account of its climatic conditions. The geological composition of the north- 

 western coast land of the Okhotsk Sea is very various. Along it crystalline rocks, gi^anite, 

 diorite, porphyry, and even labrador, are met with, as also volcanic rocks, such as trachyte 

 and basalt, as for example in the Marekan mountains at Okhotsk, upon the peninsula of 

 Segneka and on the littoral of the Uyanon inlet in the Udsk district. Among stratified rocks, 

 paleozoic formations were found in Cape Karaul in the same locality. 



A great scientific interest, but of very little economical future, is afforded by the penin- 

 sula of Kamchatka stretching to the south almost as far as 50° north latitude. The skeleton of 

 Kamchatka is formed by the middle Kamchatka range, the southern half of which consists 

 of crystalline schists, and also of granite, syenite and porphyry, while the northern is composed 

 of tertiary sandstones and volcanic rocks. Upon the boundary between these halves rises the 

 extinct volcano Icha to a height of 16,900. Parallel with the main Middle Kamchatka range, 

 along the eastern shore of the peninsula, stretches a whole row of active and extinct volca- 

 noes, forming as it were the fiery wreaths of Kamchatka. The most southern of the perma- 

 nently active volcanoes is the small Avacha, wiiose coue in the year 1848 fell quite in, but in 

 which the extensive crater which was formed after the catastrophe kept constantly smoking 

 from 1852 to 1855. The crown of the system in the neighbourhood of the Avacha bay, upon 

 which is situated the chief town of Kamchatka, is formed by the cones Povorot (7,900 feet), 

 Viliucha (6,750), Strelka or Koriak (a marvellously beautiful cone, scored with longitudinal 

 ribs, 10,630 feet;, Avacha (8,700 feet) and Zhupan (8,800 feet); the last two are always active. 



