VII.] MASHUEA. 145 



Losing sight of the range near Melcova no more mountains are 

 seen, and Mashura, a village of fourteen houses and eighty-eio-ht 

 inhabitants, has but little to recommend it in the way of scenery. 

 Excepting at the settlements no boat is ever met with, and voyao-ino- 

 on the Kamschatka is regarded by the natives as an affair of some 

 moment. Our approach was accordingly heralded by numerous 

 discharges of blank cartridge from the guns of our raftmen, and as 

 we stepped ashore shortly after sunset we found the head-man 

 awaiting us, together with a considerable proportion of the inhabit- 

 ants. Anxious to prevent a "ring" between them and the men 

 we had brought from Melcova, we approached the subject of canoes 

 for our further journey as quickly as we could. But we had been 

 anticipated, and we began to see that henceforward extortion was 

 to be the order of the day in every case in which we were brouoht 

 in contact with these people. They refused to sell us canoes, and 

 demanded sixty roubles to take us on a distance of as many versts, 

 — a rate which would have left us with empty pockets before we 

 had got half way down the river. For a small birch-bark jar of 

 milk they asked half a rouble, and charged in like proportion for 

 other articles. In these cases, however, our line of action was 

 simple. AVe took the things at once, placed them inside the tents, 

 and paid what we considered the proper sum. They refused the 

 money, and when we turned in for the night without having come 

 to\ any definite settlement for the following day, the relations 

 between us had become considerably strained. 



Mashura was, in bygone days, one of the largest Kamschatdale 

 settlements in the centre of the peninsula, but smallpox — the 

 disease so fatal on its first introduction among uncivilised nations — 

 broke out in 1767, and ravaged the country to such a frightful 

 extent that it is said to have killed nearly three-quarters of the 

 natives, and the village has since dwindled down to its present 

 insignificant size. The people were short, but strong-looking men, 

 with scanty beards and straight hair, which was either light or dark, 

 according to the preponderance of Eussian or native blood. Most 

 VOL. I. L 



