th that
of many other articles _de luxe_.

In the fur ship our travellers proceeded from Sitka to the port of
Petropaulouski, which is situated on Avatcha bay, near the southern end
of the peninsula.

As Avatcha bay is nearly land-locked, it forms one of the most sheltered
harbours on that side of the Pacific; but unfortunately during winter
the bay freezes over; and then ships can neither get into nor out of it.

The vessel which carried our adventurers arrived at Petropaulouski late
in the spring; but, as the winter had been unusually prolonged, the bay
was still blocked up with ice, and the ship could not get up to the
little town. This did not hinder them from landing. Dog-sledges were
brought out upon the ice by the inhabitants; and upon these our
travellers were carried to the town, or "ostrog" as it is called--such
being the name given to the villages of Kamschatka.

In Petropaulouski, many curious objects and customs came under the
observation of our travellers. They saw no less than three kinds of
houses--first, the "isbas," built of logs, and not unlike the log-cabins
of America. These are the best sort of dwellings; and belong to the
Russian merchants and officials, who reside there--as well as to the
Cossack soldiers, who are kept by the Russian Government in Kamschatka.

The native Kamschatdales have two kinds of houses of indigenous
architecture--one for summer, the "balagan," and another to which they
retire during the winter, called the "jourt." The balagan is
constructed of poles and thatch upon a raised platform--to which the
Kamschatdale climbs up by means of a notched trunk of a tree. There is
only one story of the house itself--which is merely the sloping thatched
roof--with a hole in the top to give passage to the smoke--and resembles
a rough tent or hayrick set upon an elevated stand. The space under the
platform is left open; and serves as a store-house for the dried fish,
that forms the staple food of all sorts of people in Kamschatka. Here,
too, the sledges and sledge harness are kept; and the dogs, of which
every family owns a large pack, use this lower story as a sleeping
place.

The winter-house or "jourt," is constructed very differently. It is a
great hole sunk in the ground to the depth of eight or ten feet, lined
round the sides with pieces of timber, and roofed over above the surface
of the ground--so as to look like the rounded dome of a large bake-oven.
A hole at the a