150 KAMSGHATKA. [chap. 



early dawn, with the thermometer below freezing, struggling in 

 an icy river with all one's furs on, but the unlucky bather was 

 soon ashore, and a sharp rub-down at the camp-fire soon restored 

 both his circulation and his equanmiity. The day was once more 

 bright and clear, and the distant peaks looked magnificent in the 

 morning sun. As we drew nearer, the mountains opened out, and 

 the western slopes of Tolbatchinska no longer hiding Kojerevska, 

 the latter volcano appeared, from this point of view at least, as a 

 perfect cone of regular shape, which half concealed the equally 

 regular and still higher peak of Kluchefskaya, the king of the 

 volcanoes of Kamschatka. Other mountains too had come in view. 

 To the north and west of Ivluchi,^ but in close proximity to it, the 

 smoothly-rounded summit of Uskovska rose above the dark line of 

 forest, and far away to the eastward two isolated and nameless 

 cones of graceful shape appeared on the horizon, which, in spite of 

 their eight or nine thousand feet, are recorded in no niap.^ 



At this part of the river the conspicuous marl cliffs disappear, 

 and the pines are replaced by aspens, a tree of which we had 

 hitherto seen but little. Landing in the afternoon to take photo- 

 graphs and observations, we came upon quantities of the cherunka 

 or wild cherry. The fruit is black, and of the size of a large 

 black currant ; very sweet, but with a peculiar sloe-like astringent 

 after- taste. The delicious Scandinavian moltebceer we did not 

 meet with, but our common raspberry and red currant are in some 

 places plentiful. The latter fruit is, in our English gardens, 

 scarcely w^orth eating, but in the wild state it is very sweet and 

 palatable. 



Eleven hours' steady paddling brought us, at 6 p.m., to three 

 deserted balagans, without fish, and with nothing to indicate the 

 presence of a human being save four canoes hauled high and dry 

 upon the bank. "We learnt that Tolbatchik, a village that we 



^ To the natives, with their love of contractions, the great mountain is thus 

 invariably known. 



- These we have since named Mount Gordon and Mount Herbert Stewart. 



