33<> 
A VOYAGE TO 
October This plant was formerly a principal ingredient in the 
cookery of moft of the Kamtfchadale difhes; but fmce the 
Ruffians got poffeffion of the country, it has been almoft 
entirely appropriated to the purpofe of diffillation. The 
manner in which it is gathered, prepared, and afterward 
diftilled, is as follows : having cut fuch ftalks as have leaves 
growing on them, of a proper age (the principal Rem, by 
the time the plant has attained its full growth, having be¬ 
come too dry for their purpofe), and fcraped off with ffiells 
the downy fubftance on their lurface, they are laid in fmall 
heaps, till they begin to fweat and fmell. On growing dry 
again, they put them into facks made of matting; where, 
after remaining a few days, they are gradually covered 
with a fweet faccharine powder, which exudes from the 
hollow of the ftalk. From thirty-fix pounds of the plant, 
in this ftate, they obtain no more than a quarter of a pound 
of powder. The women, whofe province it is to colled! and 
prepare the materials, are obliged to defend their hands 
with gloves whilft they are fcraping the ftalks, the rind 
they remove being of fo acrid a quality, as to blifter, and 
even ulcerate whatever it touches. 
The fpirit is drawn from the plant in this ftate by the 
following procefs. After fteeping bundles of it in hot water, 
they promote its fermentation in a fmall veffel, by the help 
of berries of the gimoloft *, or of the golubitfa t, being careful 
to clofe up well the mouth of the veffel, and to keep it in a 
warm place whilft the fermentation is going on, which is 
generally fo violent as to occafion a confiderable noife, and 
to agitate the veffel in which it is contained. After draw- 
* Lonicera pedunculis bijloris, jboribus infundibili far mis, bacca folitaria , oblonga, angulofcu 
Gmel. Flor. Sib. 
t Myrtillus grandis ceeruleus. 
ing 
