ndispensable article in a Russian
household, and is found in nearly every dwelling from the Baltic to
Bering's Sea. "Samovar" comes from two Greek words, meaning 'to boil
itself.' The article is nothing but a portable furnace; a brazen urn
with a cylinder two or three inches in diameter passing through it
from top to bottom. The cylinder being filled with coals, the water in
the urn is quickly heated, and remains boiling hot as long as the fire
continues. An imperial order abolishing samovars throughout all the
Russias, would produce more sorrow and indignation than the expulsion
of roast beef from the English bill of fare. The number of cups it
will contain is the measure of a samovar.

Tea pots are of porcelain or earthenware. The tea pot is rinsed and
warmed with hot water before receiving the dry leaf. Boiling water is
poured upon the tea, and when the pot is full it is placed on the top
of the samovar. There it is kept hot but not boiled, and in five or
six minutes the tea is ready. Cups and saucers are not employed by the
Russians, but tumblers are generally used for tea drinking, and in the
best houses, where it can be afforded, they are held in silver sockets
like those in soda shops. Only loaf sugar is used in sweetening tea.
When lemons can be had they are employed to give flavor, a thin slice,
neither rolled nor pressed, being floated on the surface of the tea.

[Illustration: RUSSIAN TEA SERVICE.]

The Russians take tea in the morning, after dinner, after lunch,
before bed-time, in the evening, at odd intervals in the day or night,
and they drink a great deal of it between drinks.

In rambling about Petropavlovsk I found the hills covered with
luxuriant grass, sometimes reaching to my knees. Two or three miles
inland the grass was waist high on ground covered with snow six weeks
before. Among the flowers I recognized the violet and larkspur, the
former in great abundance. Earlier in the summer the hills were
literally carpeted with flowers. I could not learn that any skilled
botanist had ever visited Kamchatka and classified its flora. Among
the arboreal productions the alder and birch were the most numerous.
Pine, larch, and spruce grow on the Kamchatka river, and the timber
from them is brought to Avatcha from the mouth of that stream.

The commercial value of Kamchatka is entirely in its fur trade. The
peninsula has no agricultural, manufacturing, or mining interest, and
were it not for the animals t