164 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



that we could no longer continue our jcnirney. Everything is 

 comparative ; and to our craft, with its low free-board and heavy 

 load, the three-inch wa^•es became more formidable than the hea^-y 

 seas in a gale in "the Bay" appear to an ocean steamer. It would 

 have been too absurd to founder in such a tea-cup storm, so we 

 made for the shore, and set to work to cut down trees till we had 

 to some extent restored the circulation in our limbs. An hour or 

 two later the wind dropped, and we were able to proceed. We 

 noticed the signs of some old forest fires near this spot, but they 

 seem, happily, to l)e very rare. In Scandinavia, in a journey of 

 the length that ours had been, we should have seen fifty or more. 

 Here the great precautions that are taken against their occurrence 

 are no doubt the chief reasons for their infrequency. Our hunters 

 told us that the sables do not return to these spots for many years 

 after, even if the forest has been but slightly injured by the fire. 



Late in the afternoon we passed the hamlet of Kristovsky, or 

 Kristi as it was called by our men, and a few versts farther came 

 upon some people encamped upon the banks. It is curious how 

 little the rivers are used as highways either during the winter or 

 summer. The natives can hardly be said to travel at all, excepting 

 in their winter excursions after sable. This was only the second 

 party we had seen away from the settlements, and we were 

 told that no one had passed down the river from Melcova that 

 year. We shouted greeting as we passed, but there was no time 

 to stop, as we wished to reach Kluchi that night. Our Kojerevsky 

 men worked their paddles with a will, and before long we reached 

 the mouth of the Yelofka Eiver, a large stream, eighty yards or 

 more in width, wdiich joins the Kamschatka on its left baidv. It 

 flows due south, draining the western slopes of the great Sevelitch 

 volcano, and is used as a road to Tigil, a settlement on the river of 

 that name in the north-west part of the peninsula, which is, or used 

 to be, a trading station of some importance to which the Koriaks 

 and Tchukchis bring in their furs for sale. The river is ascended 

 by canoes for fifty or sixty miles, the watershed is then crossed by 



