$4 
SARYTSCHEw’s TRAVELS. 
dogs, and be obliged to wade through the snow on foot; not to 
mention that the dogs. very often entangle themselves in their 
harness, in which case, the driver must take off his gloves in 
the cold to put them to rights, and is often in danger of being 
soiled with their dung. The worst trick you can play a driver, 
is to cast a piece of jukol among his dogs, v\ ho fight for it until 
they are thrown into the utmost confusion. If he be in com¬ 
pany with others, he is thus prevented from keeping up with 
them, and exposed to all the iuconveniencies of going behind; 
the principal of which is, that the dung of the other dogs is 
continually freezing on his sledge, and requires him every mo¬ 
ment to clear it away with his knife. When you get to a pub¬ 
lic-house, you are not free from your dogs. The instant they 
are unharnessed, they must be tied to a post. Nor can they be 
immediately fed, for they must wait until the sweat is dried off. 
A whole or half a jukol is then given them, but the master must 
stand by to see that every dog gets his part, and also to drive 
away the crows, which are not very shy in this country. They 
will collect in great quantities round the dogs if not thus guard¬ 
ed, and snap up all their allowance 
Captain Billings going with Mr. Hall, the surgeon, at the 
close of November to the fortress of Bolscherezsk, Mr. Beh¬ 
ring and I followed him, agreeable to bis request, at the end of 
December. We set off with our dogs from Petropaulowsk, 
and proceeded by the bay of Awatska, over little acclivities co¬ 
vered with birch-vrood. On the summit of one we saw a loose 
stone thoroughly burnt, about five yards in circumference. It 
appeared to have been thrown out from some volcanic moun¬ 
tain ; but as that of Awatska, the very nearest, is certainly 40 
versts distant, it is not probable for a stone of that weight to 
have been hurled so far on any eruption, however violent. It is 
a far more feasible conjecture, that the explosion formerly took 
place in a quarter nearer this spot. It is in fact not altogether 
improbable, that the place now occupied by the bay of Awatska, 
was formerly a volcanic mountain, which fell in and formed this 
harbour. It retains at least many traces of having originated 
from a convulsion of the earth. Seven versts from the harbour 
we left the above heights and desended into a plain that extends 
for 20 versts, and is intersected by the two rivers Awatska and 
Paratunka. We stopped at the Kamtsdhadale place, of the 
same name with the latter river, which lies seven versts distant 
from its mouth, and has a wooden church, the remains of what 
had been built on the expedition of commodore Behring. 
From the fortress of Paratunka, the way leads up the river 
Awatska, where we found many otters, and discovered the traces 
of sables and foxes. 
