THE TUNGUSI. 



247 



fourteen different species live in the Sea of Ochotsk, are the only food which the 

 neighborhood affords ; all other necessaries of life come from Jakutsk, and are 

 of course enormously dear. Meat appears only from time to time on the ta- 

 bles of the wealthier merchants, and bread is an article of luxury. No won- 

 der that the scurvy ravages every winter a place so ill-provisioned, and that 

 at the time when the first caravan of pack-horses is expected to cross the Al- 

 dan Mountains, the people of Ochotsk, unable to restrain their impatience, go 

 out a long way to meet it. As the former trade of the place has now no doubt 

 been transferred to the settlements on the Amoor, it may well be supposed 

 that Ochotsk has lost most of its former inhabitants, who can only be con- 

 gratulated on their change of residence. 



