174 KAMSGHATKA. [chap. 



Our original intention had been to leave Kluclii in the forenoon, 

 but many things conspiied to prevent it. We had bought some 

 of the little birch- bark barrels that they make so cleverly throughout 

 the country, and there was a great discussion as to wliether we 

 had paid for them or not, — easy to be explained by the fact that 

 the inhabitants of the village are the descendants of Siberian 

 Eussians brought from the Eiver Lena, and settled here about the 

 year 1735. Wearied with the constant recurrence of these 

 impositions, I wandered out at the back of the village to inspect 

 the fields, which are of larger extent here than in any other place 

 we had yet visited. Eye is cultivated, though apparently not to 

 any very great extent, although the valley of the Kamschatka 

 is said to be the only place where there is any chance of its 

 ripening. It is sown in the middle of May, and the harvest, 

 when there is one, is at the middle or end of August. Potatoes 

 and turnips were grown in some abundance, but there was little 

 else in the way of cultivation except a few poor attempts at 

 garden produce. The catholic tastes of the sledge-dogs prevent 

 the inhabitants from keeping the smaller domestic animals, but 

 cows are numerous, and almost every house had poles placed 

 around the front to keep oft' these animals, which are permitted to 

 wander about at will. 



The discussion on the birch-bark barrels had subsided on my 

 return to the house, but we found tliat our landlord had inserted 

 the pope's cabbages in the bill — or what would have been the Ijill 

 did such things exist in the country — and more difficulties arose 

 before we finally got afloat. At the last moment the doctor again 

 appeared, with two boxes and a loose razor which he begged us to 

 take to his son in Petropaulovsky. In his hand he bore the Kams- 

 chatdale skull, reverently tied up in an old handkei'chief. We 

 paid our landlord, and included the pope's cabbages ; we paid twace 

 for our birch-bark barrels ; we slung up the skull at the back of 

 our hut ; and bidding do suidania to the united population of 

 Kluchi, who were drawn up on the bank to watch our departure. 



