A PARTING SALUTE. 
415 
silent contempt,” and was retaliated upon, as we hoisted 
the sail, by his singing out, at the top of his voice, “ You 
lie ! you no dobre!” whereupon I felt very small, though 
it was I who had only told the truth, while he had been 
rude and inhospitable. I am ashamed to say that I was 
so weak as to experience a desii’e to give the rascal a 
good kicking with my heavy expedition-boots. The 
breeze, which had caused us so much hard work in the 
morning, was now in our favour, and soon wafted us once 
more alongside of the “old John,” when the anchor was 
at once hove up, and we continued our survey toward 
another settlement, called Tavisk or Taousk. Tliis was 
the fourth and last settlement that we fell in with from 
the time of striking the west coast of Kamtschatka up to 
our arrival at Ayan on the east coast of Siberia. There 
were two others that we did not reach, — a small town 
at the head of the Gulf of Penjinks, and the larger one 
of Okotsk, both of which we were forced to pass for 
want of time. These two latter, and the four previously- 
mentioned, are the only settlements that we could hear 
of along that entire coast-line, commencing at Cape 
Lapatka, the most southern point of Kamtschatka, and 
ending at Ayan, which is within a few score miles of the 
mouth of the Amoor River. 
The long northern day was pretty well ended as we let 
go our anchor off the mouth of tlie river on the banks 
of which we had been told that Taousk was located; and 
night was so close at hand that we could oidy tell, from 
the reflected rays of light that beamed from the river’s 
winding bosom, that we had struck the right place. It 
was so late, in fact, that we hesitated as to the propriety 
