IO8 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIX, 



by the government storekeeper and 'his family, all of whom 

 had died the previous winter from an epidemic of measles and 

 pneumonia, which took off nearly 150 of the inhabitants of 

 the Gichiginski settlement. We were occupied for the next 

 ten days in landing, storing, and dividing our freight. 



Mr. Jochelson had expected to find the Koryaks here in 

 their summer camps along the coast, but as they had already 

 abandoned them and returned to their herds and permanent 

 sites he prepared to go to the settled Koryak villages along 

 the head of the Penginski Gulf, and he and the rest of the 

 party left for Parane with a pack-train on September 10. 



A large party of Russian workmen, in charge of four Ameri- 

 can mining engineers, and employed by an English explora- 

 tion company, arrived from up the river on the i3th, where 

 they had been prospecting for gold. I purchased from them 

 some much-needed provisions, the obtaining of which had been 

 neglected in Vladivostok. On September 24 they sailed on 

 their ship 'Progress,' in company with the 'Mukden,' which 

 had arrived [that day, thus breaking the last link that bound 

 me to civilization. 



The migration of the birds was already advanced when we 

 arrived, so I immediately set to work to get as many as pos- 

 sible before the long winter closed down, but was unable to 

 accomplish much on account of our cramped quarters and 

 other work until after the departure of Mr. Jochelson. 



The coast-line of the Gichiginski Gulf, formed by the main- 

 land and the Taiganose Peninsula, rises boldly from the water 

 to a height of two to three hundred feet, except at its head, 

 where it is low and marshy and entered by the Gichiga and 

 Ovecho Rivers. These two rivers, with their tributaries, 

 drain the triangular valley between the Stanovoi Mountains 

 on the west and a spur which extends south from them and 

 forms the backbone of the Taiganose Peninsula. This valley 

 is a high, rolling tundra, dotted with numerous lakes and 

 pools, and destitute of trees except on some of the dry, elevated 

 places where there is a scant growth of recumbent stone pine, 

 and along the river-bottoms. The mountains to the eastward 

 attain at one point, Babooska, 18 miles from the mouth of the 



