pex is intended for the chimney, but it is also the
door: Since there is no other mode of entrance into the jourt, and the
interior is reached by descending a notched tree trunk--similar to that
used in climbing up to the balagan.

The curious fur dresses of the Kamschatdales; their thin yellowish white
dogs, resembling the Pomeranian breed; their dog-sledges, which they use
for travelling in winter; the customs and habits of these singular
people; all formed an interesting study to our travellers, and enriched
their journal with notes and observations. We find it recorded there,
how these people spend their time and obtain their subsistence. Very
little agriculture is practised by them--the climate being unfavourable
to the growth of the cereals. In some parts barley and rye are
cultivated; but only to a _very_ limited extent. Cattle are scarce--a
few only being kept by the Russian and Cossack settlers; and horses are
equally rare, such as there are belonging to the officials of the
Government, and used for Government purposes. The common or "native"
people subsist almost entirely on a fish diet--their lakes and rivers
furnishing them with abundance of fish; and the whole of the summer is
spent in catching and drying these for their winter provision. Several
wild vegetable productions are added--roots and berries, and even the
bark of trees--all of which are eaten along with the dried fish. Wild
animals also furnish part of their subsistence; and it is by the skins
of these--especially the sable--that the people pay their annual tax, or
tribute, to the Russian Government. From animals, too, their clothing
is chiefly manufactured; and many other articles used in their domestic
economy. The peninsula is rich in the fur-bearing quadrupeds, and some
of these furnish the very best quality of furs that are known to
commerce. The sable of Kamschatka is of a superior kind as also the
many varieties of the fox. They have, besides, the wolverine and wolf,
the ermine and Arctic fox, the marmot and polar hare, and several
smaller animals that yield furs of commercial value. The sea otter is
common upon the coasts of Kamschatka; and this is also an object of the
chase--its skin being among the costliest of "peltries." The great
_argali_, or wild sheep, and the reindeer, furnish them both with flesh
and skins; but one of the chief objects of the chase is that great
quadruped for which our young hunters had come all the w