THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
327 
fattening of cattle. Indeed it fhould appear, from the fize 
and fatnefs of the thirty-fix head that were fent down to 
us from the Verchnei ojlrog , and which, we were told, were 
bred and fattened in the neighbourhood, that they mult 
have had the advantage of both good paltures and mea¬ 
dows. For it is worth our notice, that the firft fupply we 
received, confining of twenty, came to us juft at the clofe 
of the winter, and before the fnow was off the ground, and 
therefore probably had tailed nothing but hay for the feven 
preceding months. And this agrees with what is related by 
Krafcheninikoff, that there is no part of the country equal 
in fertility to that which borders on the River Kamtfchatka ; 
and that to the North and South it is much inferior both in 
point of foil and climate. Fie relates, that repeated experi¬ 
ments have been made in the culture of oats, barley, and 
rye, in different quarters near this river, which have gene¬ 
rally fucceeded; that, in particular, fome perfons belong¬ 
ing to the convent of Jakutzk, who had fettled in that part 
of the country, had fown barley there, which had yielded 
an extraordinary increafe; and he has no doubt but that 
wheat, in many parts, particularly near the fource of the 
Biftraia and Kamtfchatka, would grow as well as in the ge¬ 
nerality of countries lituated in the fame latitude. Perhaps 
the fuperior fertility of the country here fpoken of may, in 
a great meafure, be accounted for, from its lying in that 
part of the peninfula, which is by much the wideft, and 
confequently fartheft removed from the fea, on each lide. 
The moift chilling fogs, and drizzling weather, which pre¬ 
vail almoft perpetually along the coaft, muft neceffarily 
render the parts adjacent very unfit for all the purpofes of 
agriculture. 
It is natural to fuppofe, that the feverity of the climate 
muft 
» 779 ' 
October. 
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