61 



PLATE XX. 



KAMTSCHATKA. 



DECIDUOUS FORESTS ON THE CENTRAL KAMTSCHATKA RIVER. 



August. 



Opposite a "jar" there is generally a sandbank ("Pessok"); at every bend of the 

 river the jar forms the concave, the pessok the convex bank. In the Central 

 Kamtschatka districts these bends occur at such regular distances from each other, 

 that the length of the road is determined by the number of sandbanks. These 

 sandbanks generally consist of coarse gravel, and evidently increase at the same 

 ratio as the opposite bank gives way to the force of the current. The first shrubs 

 appearing on this new soil are nearly always willows. The curious habit which they 

 exhibit in our illustration is common on the Upper and Central Kamtschatka Eiver ; 

 lower down it is not observed. May not this peculiar habit be perhaps the conse- 

 quence of long inundations ? There are mostly upon these sandbanks a few yellow 

 Cruciferce, and perchance an Artemisia and a Chenopodium, growing gregariously 

 in groups. On the left-hand side of the background is seen the mouth of a little 

 tributary, confined by an alluvial bank of dark-brown mud. In such banks I 

 always noticed the three equally thick strata indicated in our illustration, and in 

 which the alluvial soil is deposited, though there was no difference in their com- 

 ponent parts. On these perpendicular banks I often observed, and curiously 

 enough, always on the second stratum, a small drooping Equisetum ( 3 f) growing 

 gregariously. Another larger Equisetum covers farther up the surface of the 

 mud, above which woods of the common willow, intermingled with a few alders, 

 are growing luxuriantly. At a greater distance from the banks poplars replace the 

 willows. Here we see (4 c) only a younger specimen of the species introduced in 

 Plate XVIII., which on this side forms the forest, alternating with birch and 

 different species of willows. 



