VIII.] THE LOWER KAMSCHATKA. 175 



we paddled out into the current, and in another ten minutes the 

 village was lost to view. 



In Fiudlay's " North Pacific Directory " it is stated, though upon 

 what authority is not clear, that the Kamschatka Eiver " is said to 

 be capable of admitting vessels of 100 tons about one hundred and 

 fifty miles up the stream." This, however, is not correct, or at any 

 rate is very misleading, for the river is beset throughout with sand- 

 banks which in many places apparently lie completely across the 

 stream. Thus, opposite Kluchi village there was only an average 

 of seven feet of water, while both above and below we got depths 

 of twenty or thirty feet and more. The sand-banks also are very 

 unexpectedly placed, and the navigation of the stream by a 

 large vessel, even if possible, could only be accomplished by the 

 aid of an elaborate system of buoys, which, I need hardly say, is 

 not likely to be instituted for many a year to come. From some 

 versts above Kluchi to the mouth of the river, except at the 

 Tchoaki or narrows, to which I shall have occasion to refer presently, 

 many islands are formed by the bifurcation of the stream, some of 

 them of large size, and the river increases considerably in breadth. 

 Opposite the village it is said never to freeze entirely over, a fact 

 the people attribute to the existence of hot springs in the river bed. 

 They also told us that salmon remain here throughout the winter, 

 though not in any great numbers. 



Among these islands there appeared to be more duck than we 

 had been lately accustomed to see in the lower part of the river, 

 and we here obtained the Shoveller (aS'. clypeata) for the first time. 

 Landing to replenish the larder at some small lakes towards the 

 hour of sunset, we remarked both snipe and wild geese, neither of 

 which we had previously met with, but it was too dark to dis- 

 tinguish the species. Vergiaski followed us on occasions such as 

 these with the stolid expression and steady gait he always affected. 

 Nothing short of a bear, I believe, ever roused him to any less 

 dignified pace than a walk, and as he slowly followed us, I had a 

 lurking suspicion that he regarded our occupation as a rather 



