182 KA MSCHA TKA . [chap. 



The captain of the Nemo, who was a Swede, and spoke English 

 with perfect fluency, enlivened our row home with his accounts of 

 Saghalin, from which island he had just come. It is now a Prussian 

 penal settlement, which is only used for criminals of the worst 

 kind. The discipline adopted, according to his account, was of 

 extreme severity, and many of the prisoners preferred to take 

 their chance of escape, and the almost certain risk of death by 

 starvation in the bush, rather than endure it. In one case he 

 mentioned, two of these unfortunate wretches escaped. One was 

 caught almost immediately, and the other returned of his own 

 accord at the end of some days, nearly dead from starvation. He 

 was fed up until he recovered, and 100 lashes were then ad- 

 ministered every day until one of the men died. 



In Ust Kamschatka, it is hardly necessary to say, there are 

 neither gas lamps nor pavements,-^ and the state of the paths about 

 the settlement — if paths indeed they can be called — is indescrib- 

 able at this season. The captain, who was as good an amateur 

 doctor as he was a Samaritan, had asked me to come and see a sick 

 woman he had been looking after, and we accordingly started at 

 once in search of the hut. It was by no means easy to find it, 

 and we stumbled about over stones and through swamps for some 

 time in vain. In one of the latter my companion lost his boot, 

 and though we expended all our matches in hunting for it, we 

 never saw it again, and he had to see his patient in a condition 

 that was, to say the least of it, improfessional. 



"We had been bidden to a feast in the evening. To have one 

 ship in the port was rare enough, but the presence of two was 

 so unprecedented that it was felt that something must be done to 

 commemorate it. A ball was accordingly resolved on. The Swedes 

 sent various intoxicating drinks, as became their nation, and the 

 supper-table groaned with Kamschatkan delicacies — cranberries, 

 brick -tea, and cold ducks. The ballroom was not lofty, and the 



1 Perhaps I may be wrong. I was once asked by a lady, in all seriousness, if the 

 hotels in New Guinea were tolerably good ! 



