THE ISPRAVNIK 93 



people, may lead to the most arbitrary proceedings, 

 and endanger the prestige of the Government. I do 

 not mean to hint that things were in such a position, 

 but only that they might be so. As it happened, the 

 Ispravnik seemed a good-natured person, and from 

 what I gathered was quite popular among the Kam- 

 chadales. He informed us that last year measles, a 

 formerly unknown disease in the country, had been 

 brought in by some steamer, and had been ravaging 

 the population ever since, killing over 800 natives. 

 It was still raging among them in the northern parts 

 of the peninsula with fatal results. If one considers 

 that there are not more than 8, 000 inhabitants in the 

 whole district, it means that ten per cent, had been 

 carried off; that illness, he said, was chiefly fatal to 

 grown-up people, and was not so deadly to children. 

 Lepers still existed in the country, and were isolated 

 in a small settlement called Nikolaievsk, south of 

 Avatcha Bay. They all lived together in their 

 doomed enclosure, forgotten by the rest of the world, 

 and abandoned by their families, who dared not ap- 

 proach them. He told us that last winter had been a 

 very severe one, and that there had been unusually 

 heavy snowfalls, traces of which could still be seen 

 on the comparatively low hills. He did not seem to 

 know much on the subject of sport, though he thought 



