92 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



and sour bilberries. The houses of the better class of natives are 

 almost all log -built. They are unpainted, and the rooms, unlike 

 those usually seen in the northern parts of Scandinavia, are generally 

 small. Of these there are usually two — rarely or never more than 

 four ; and in most of the huts in the larQer villages the floors are 

 boarded. As is the case among other northern nations, the houses 

 are in many places raised above the ground, either by means of a 

 foundation of stone, or, like a haystack, by low wooden pillars at 

 the corners. The hut is warmed by a huge brick or stone stove, 

 generally built between the two rooms. It is supplied with fuel 

 only once daily, and the heat thrown out is so great, and the atmos- 

 phere, owing to the hermetically-closed windows, so stuffy, as to be 

 well-nigh insupportable to a European. The furniture is simple. 

 A few chairs, an abundance of cockroaches and other less mention- 

 able insects, a rough deal table, and a tawdry gilt eilcon of the 

 Eussian Church — a sort of fetich without which no peasant would 

 feel comfortable — is usually a tolerably full inventory. A house 

 of this kind is, of course, only owned by what may be termed the 

 upper classes — those of Eussian blood who have migrated from 

 Siberia. The dwellings of the half-breed Kamschatdales, which I 

 shall presently have occasion to describe, are very different. 



While we were superintending the passage of our horses across 

 the river — a somewhat lengthy operation, owing to the depth of 

 the stream necessitating the off-loading of the baggage — we were 

 astonished at being greeted in very fair English by a long, lean 

 cornstalk of a lad, who expressed his pleasure at meeting travellers 

 of that nationality in his own country. He was evidently possessed 

 of no little love of travel himself, and told us that he had been for 

 a year as cabin-boy on board an English steamer trading between 

 China and Japan. His advent was opportune, as through him we 

 w^ere able to make arrangements for three more horses, which we 

 were to pick up on the road the following day. Eor th-ese, which 

 were to accompany us until we reached the head waters of the 

 Kamschatka Eiver, a distance of about three hundred versts, we 



