144 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



resumed our journey down the river. We had hitherto only been 

 able to buy one canoe, and in consequence were in need of four 

 others with which to make our rafts. These they refused to sell 

 us, but offered to lend them, together with men to take us on to 

 ]\iashura, the nearest settlement, for fifty roubles ! The silver 

 rouble being nearly three and sixpence, and the distance only sixty 

 versts — rather less than forty miles — we at once refused, regarding 

 the demand merely as one of the common incidents of bargaining, 

 and expecting it very soon to be considerably reduced. We were 

 rather astonished that there was no sign of anything of the kind, 

 and after waiting some time we had ourselves to return to the 

 charge. In vain we threw the Ispravnik at their heads : we had a 

 discussion of an hour and a half's duration, which at last ended in 

 our agreeing to pay forty roubles, but under protest. At the same 

 time we informed them that we should lay the matter before the 

 Ispravnik on our return to Petropaulovsky. 



It was two or three hours after sunrise before we got fairly 

 under way. The weather was gloomy and cold, but with the 

 exception of one heavy shower, we escaped without much rain. 

 Shortly after leaving Melcova the character of the river scenery 

 changes. Tor the first time on our journey we noticed the pine 

 and spruce, and welcomed them with pleasure, as a relief from the 

 wearisome monotony of poplar, birch, and alder. Here and there 

 curious mud cliffs bank in the stream ; often eighty feet or more 

 in height, and nearly perpendicular.^ The men begged that we 

 would not fire while passing under them, lest a landslip should 

 occur ; and apparently with reason, for the soil appears to be con- 

 stantly crumbling away, and little cascades of dust poured un- 

 brokenly from the face of the banks as we paddled beneath. In 

 one place we noticed a chalybeate spring welling up close to the 

 water's edge, while others of pure water seemed abundant at the 

 base of these earthy cliffs. 



^ These banks of reddish marl, known by the name oiyar, appear to be not un- 

 common in Siberia. The town of Krasnojarsk on the Yenisei is thus named from 

 their existence in the vicinity. 



