DISMAL TRAVELLING. 
2,.> 
guishing the fattest fish, which they strike so dexterously with 
their spikes as never to miss their aim. This spike, in Russian 
bagor, is ail instrument particularly in use among the Kosaks on 
the Ural, and at the fishing of the Wolga, consisting of an 
iron spike, with two points, fastened in a long stick. 
After supper our landlords gave us a dance, in which men 
and women forming a circle, jumped to a tune that consisted of 
the two words ochur, juchur, continually repeated. However 
wretched the condition of these people may apparently be, 
they are incomparably more happy than many of the cultivated 
sons of fortune, who riot in uninterrupted luxury. To variety 
and care they are alike strangers. Their wants are extremely 
limited; an abundance of fish is the height of their happiness, 
as it constitutes their principal subsistence. They barter it 
likewise with their reindeer Tunguses for their clothing. 
We now pursued our course all together, passing over a di¬ 
versity of mountains, and through numerous rivers. The wea¬ 
ther, which had hitherto been favourable, changed to rain on the 
9th, that continued for twenty-four hours without intermission. 
In addition to which, our guides were now unable to conduct 
us farther. We fortunately met with some other Tunguses, four 
of whom we engaged, with twenty-two reindeer. From the 
river Uega, where we had just been stopping, the road became 
insupportably tedious, leading perpetually through mountainous 
and marshy countries, and sometimes being totally blocked up 
by the trees which had been only half consumed in a conflagra¬ 
tion*. Our horses suffered so seriously from the fatigue, that 
we were obliged to leave many of them in the wood ; and meet¬ 
ing soon after with a convenient place for a night’s lodging, which 
yielded good fodder, we resolved on resting the following day 
in this place. 
We spent this day in shooting and fishing, and caught many of 
the chariusf in our nets ; among which was a narka, in a perfect 
* In the country around Petersburg!! it is not unfrequent for extensive 
woods to be consumed. The fire commonly arises from the negligence of 
the peasantry coming in bodies to the city, whose fires, towards the 
evening, afford an agreeable prospect. 
f Charius, salmo thymallus, a species of salmon; its head is rather 
small, obtuse, and spotted black, the under part and the sides having a 
bluish cast; its gills are furnished with tuo rows of teeth, extended into its 
throat. Its body is covered with a thick firm scale, its back dark green and 
rather arched, its sides flattened and of a grey bluish colour. From the 
head to the taila bluish stripe runs down on every scale, the middle of which 
is spotted black. The belly is white, the pectoral fins small and yellowish ; 
those on the side, tail, and belly, reddish ; that on its back large, yellowish 
in the beginning and reddish at the ends, having four rows of round spots. 
The charius frequents the rapidly flowing springs of the mountains, and is 
two feet long. Its flesh is white, firm, delicate, and fat. 
DICT. OF TUF. RUSS. ACADEMY, 
