142 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



whole of the labour and material necessary for its construction was 

 being gratuitously given by the inhabitants. I am obliged to record 

 the fact that the building did not appear to be progressing with 

 very great rapidity. 



The weather of the previous day showed little signs of iniprov- 

 ment. A biting wind with rain and sleet at intervals made us not 

 sorry that we had settled to take a Sunday's rest here. Some 

 fifteen miles or so to the eastward is a fine range of mountains 

 about five thousand feet in height, which the downpour of the day 

 before had covered to the lower slopes with fresh snow. Here and 

 there a passing touch of sunlight fell upon the peaks and tlnew 

 them out in bold relief against the leaden sky. Pjut, late and cold 

 as it was, the fishing had not ceased, and by the river-side they 

 were cleaning and preparing Kisutchi — the latest salmon that 

 visits Kamschatkan waters. Numbers of the King Salmon {0. 

 orientalis) hung drying in the balagans ; many of very large size. 

 The current of the river is rather swift here and at Werchni, and 

 w^e learnt that it does not usually freeze completely over until the 

 end of January. It would seem as if the severity of the frost were 

 never very great until that month. The snow invariably falls 

 throughout the country in October, or even earlier, but it is seldom 

 fit for sledge-travelling until November. 



While at Melcova we tried to get some of the reindeer-skin 

 dresses of the country, as we had already felt the cold considerably 

 in European clothes, and knew that at this season the thermometer 

 would sink steadily from day to day. They had none for sale in 

 the settlement, and we had to send over to Werchni Kamschatka 

 for them. These dresses are of two kinds, the huMcuikas oii^ parkas, 

 and are merely loose sacques composed of pieces of reindeer-skin 

 beautifully dressed, and sewn together with thread made from the 

 sinew of the animal, just as are the " karosses " of South Africa. 

 They are provided with a large bearskin hood, and are put on over 

 the head without fastening of any kind. The rest of the costume 

 is composed of a pair of breeches of like nature, and boots almost 



