ravenous, that they will sometimes even attack the
bullocks.

The houses in Bolcheretsk are all of one fashion, being built of logs, and
thatched. That of the commander is much larger than the rest, consisting of
three rooms of a considerable size, neatly papered, and which might have
been reckoned handsome, if the _talc_ with which the windows were covered,
had not given them a poor and disagreeable appearance. The town consists of
several rows of low buildings, each consisting of five or six dwellings,
connected together, with a long common passage running the length of them,
on one side of which is the kitchen and store-house, and on the other the
dwelling apartments. Besides these are barracks for the Russian soldiers
and cossacks, a well-looking church, and a court-room, and at the end of
the town a great number of _balagans_, belonging to the Kamtschadales. The
inhabitants, taken all together, amount to between five and six hundred. In
the evening the major gave a handsome entertainment, to which the principal
people of the town of both sexes were invited.

The next morning we applied privately to the merchant, Fedositsch, to
purchase some tobacco for the sailors, who had now been upward of a
twelvemonth without this favourite commodity. However, this, like all our
other transactions of the same kind, came immediately to the major's
knowledge; and we were soon after surprised to find in our house four bags
of tobacco, weighing-upward of a hundred pounds each, which he begged might
be presented, in the name of himself and the garrison under his command, to
our sailors. At the same time they had sent us twenty loaves of fine sugar,
and as many pounds of tea, being articles they understood we were in great
want of, which they begged to be indulged in presenting to the officers.
Along with these Madame Behm had also sent a present for Captain Clerke,
consisting of fresh-butter, honey, figs, rice, and some other little things
of the same kind, attended with many wishes that, in his infirm state of
health, they might be of service to him. It was in vain we tried to oppose
this profusion of bounty, which I was really anxious to restrain, being
convinced that they were giving away, not a share, but almost the whole
stock of the garrison. The constant answer the major returned us on those
occasions was, that we had suffered a great deal, and that we must needs be
in distress. Indeed the length of time we had been out since