THE USSUKl-LITTOEAL TKACT. 71 



Avacha produced frightful eruptions in the years 1825 and 1855. Traces of the first of these 

 eruptions were left in the gullies deeply cut in the sides of the mountain, washed away hy the 

 torrents of hot water proceeding from the mass of melted snows. Further to the north, volcanoes 

 are grouped round Lake Kronotskoe. The highest of them, the Kronotsk, is 9,940 feet high. 

 Still further to the north, in view of the Gulf of Kamchatka and the mouths of the river 

 Kamchatka, the principal stream on the peninsula, are collected other volcanoes still active, 

 of which the Kliuchevsk is the highest of all the active volcanoes of Kamchatka, and consid- 

 erahly exceeds in height not only Mont Blanc hut even Kazhek, rising from 16,000 and 

 17,000 feet above sea level. The stream of lava which descended from the Kliuchevsk 

 at the eruption of 1843 almost reached the river Kamchatka. The other active volcanoes of 

 this group also attain colossal altitudes, namely the Krestovsk 11,000 feet, and Siveliuch 10,500 

 feet. Kamchatka reckons in all 12 active and over 26 extinct volcanoes. 



The greater part of the Chukot land is occupied hy the hasin of the Anadyr, hut the 

 Chukot or Behring peninsula proper, forming the extreme north-eastern extremity of Asia, 

 separated from America by Behring Straits, is mountainous and deeply indented with iiords. 

 In the neighbourhood of Kamchatka in the Behring Sea are the somewhat elevated and inhabited 

 Commander Islands partly composed of volcanic rocks, enjoying a world-wide reputation on 

 account of their seal fisheries and other marine industries. 



The climatic conditions of the whole Okhotsk-Kamchatka country are extremely unfa- 

 vourable. The Okhotsk Sea, notwithstanding it does not reach as far north as the Baltic, 

 its most northern entrances being on one line of latitude with the Channel, has the char- 

 acter of a thoroughly polar sea, frequently visited by whales. In the most southern ports of 

 the Okhotsk Sea, Udsk and Ayan, the mean annual temperature is about 4", the winters, 

 notwithstanding the nearness of the Sea, are severe, the mean winter temperature in Ayan 

 being — 20^, and in Udsk with its more continental climate, — 28°. The summer is cool; in 

 Ayan 11°, in Udsk, 13.5°. If agriculture in Udsk with an average temperature during the 

 five-months vegetative period of about 12° is extremely precarious, in Ayan with 8° it is 

 impossible. In Okhotsk the mean annual temperature is even lower, — 5°; the winters are 

 colder than in Ayan, — 19.5°, the summer the same, 11". The same also is the mean tem- 

 perature of the five-months vegetative period, 8", completely excluding the possibility of the 

 development here of agriculture. Somewhat differently situated is Petropavlovsk, in Kam- 

 chatka on Behring Sea, which is subject to a purely marine climate. The average annual 

 temperature, 2°, is here higher than in the Okhotsk Sea, the winter much more moderate, — 

 8°, the summer almost the same as at the Udsk penal settlement, 13°, but the mean temper- 

 ature of the five-months vegetative period, 10. 6°, is less favourable to agriculture than in 

 Udsk. As to the dampness of the climate and the annual rainfall, the Okhotsk-Kam- 

 chatka country presents in this respect two sharp contrasts. The larger southern part 

 of the Sea of Okhotsk and the southern extremity of Kamchatka are constantly wrapped 

 in fogs, drenched with rain or smothered with snow, so that in Ayan the quantity of 

 the annual rainfall amounts to 1,113 millimetres, in Petropavlovsk to 1,240 millimetres, in 

 Ayan summer precipitation 526 millimetres, and autumn 452 predominating, while in Pe- 

 tropavlovsk summer has the smallest precipitation, which is however very great in autumn, 



