death. Their hair seldom turns gray before their sixtieth year, and even the oldest men have a firm and elastic step. The weight of their body is greater than that of the Jakuts, though the latter live on milk and flesh, while fish is the almost exclusive food of the Kamchatkans. The round tubercles of the Fritillaria sarrana, a species of lily with a dark purple flower, likewise play an important part in their diet, and serve them instead of bread and meal. "If the fruits of the bread-fruit tree," says Kittlitz-who has seen both plants in the places of their growth-" are pre-eminent among all others, as affording man a perfect substitute for bread, the roots of the Sarrana, which are very similar in taste, rank perhaps immediately after them. The collecting of these tubers in the meadows is an important summer occupation of the women, and one which is rather troublesome, as the plant never grows gregariously, so that each root has to be sought and dug out separately with a knife. Fortunately the wonderful activity of the Siberian field-vole facilitates the labor of gathering the tubers. These remarkable animals burrow extensive winter nests, with five or six store-houses, which they fill with various roots, but chiefly with those of the Sarrana. To find these subterranean treasures, the Kamchatkans use sticks with iron points, which they strike into the earth. The contents of three of these nests are as much as a man can carry on his back. A species of fungus, called muchamor, affords a favorite stimulant. It is dried and eaten raw. Besides its exhilarating effects, it is said to produce, like the Peruvian Coca, a remarkable increase of strength, which lasts for a considerable time.

Fishing and hunting supply all the wants of the Kamchatkans, for they have not yet learned to profit in any degree worth mentioning by the luxuriance of their meadow-lands. They pay their taxes and purchase their foreign luxuries -meal and tea, tobacco and brandy-with furs. The chase of the costly seaotter (which from excessive persecution had at one time almost become extinct) has latterly improved. Besides the fur animals, they also hunt the reindeer, the argali, the wolf, and the bear, whose skins supply them with clothing.

Bears abound in Kamchatka, as they find a never-failing supply of fishes and berries, and Ermann assures us that they would long since have extirpated the inhabitants, if (most probably on account of the plenty in which they live) they were not of a more gentle disposition than any others in the world. In spring they descend from the mountains to the mouths of the rivers, to levy their tribute on the migratory troops of the fishes, frequently eating only the heads. Toward autumn they follow the fishes into the interior of the country as they ascend the streams.

The most valuable domestic animal in Kamchatka is the dog, who has the usual characters of the Esquimaux race. He lives exclusively on fish, which he catches very dexterously. From spring to autumn he is allowed to roam at liberty, no one troubling himself about him; but in October, every proprietor collects his dogs, binds them to a post, and lets them fast for a time, so as to deprive them of their superfluous fat, and to render them more fit for running. During the winter they are fed with dried fish every morning and evening, but while travelling they get nothing to eat, even though they run for hours. Their strength is wonderful. Generally no more than five of them are harnessed to a

sledge, and will drag with ease three full-grown persons, and sixty pounds' weight of luggage. When lightly laden, such a sledge will travel from 30 to 40 versts in a day over bad roads and through the deep snow; on even roads, from 80 to 140. The horse can never be used for sledging, on account of the deep snow, into which it would sink, and of the numerous rivers and sources, which are either never frozen, or merely covered with a thin sheet of ice, unable to bear the weight of so large an animal.

Travelling with dogs is, however, both dangerous and difficult. Instead of the whip, the Kamchatkans use a crooked stick with iron rings, which, by their jingling, give the leader of the team the necessary signals. When the dogs do not sufficiently exert themselves, the stick is cast among them to rouse them to greater speed; but then the traveller must be dexterous enough to

pick it up again while the sledge shoots along. During a snow-storm the dogs keep their master warm, and will lie quietly near him for hours, so that he has merely to prevent the snow from covering him too deeply and suffocating him. The dogs are also excellent weather prophets, for when, while resting, they dig holes in the snow, a storm may with certainty be expected.

The sledge-dogs are trained to their future service at a very early period. Soon after birth they are placed with their mother in a deep pit, so as to see neither man nor beast, and, after having been weaned, they are again condemned to solitary confinement in a pit. After six months they are attached to a sledge with other older dogs, and, being extremely shy, they run as fast as they can. On returning home, they are again confined in their pit, where they

remain until they are perfectly trained, and able to perform a long journey. Then, but not before, they are allowed their summer liberty. This severe education completely sours their temper, and they constantly remain gloomy, shy, quarrelsome, and suspicious.

To return to the Kamchatkans: travellers praise their good-nature, their hospitality, and their natural wit. Of a sanguine disposition, they are happy and content, in their poverty, and have no cares for the morrow. Being extremely indolent, they never work unless when compelled. They readily adopt strange manners, and no doubt education might produce valuable results in so pliable and sharp-witted a race. Unfortunately the Russians and Cossacks who have settled among them do not afford them the best examples. They

have long since been converted to the Greek Church, but it is supposed that baptism has not fully effaced all traces of Shamanism. Formerly they had many gods, the chief of whom was Kutka, the creator of heaven and earth. But far from honoring Kutka, they continually ridiculed him, and made him the constant butt of their satire. Kutka, however, had a wife, Chachy, who was endowed with all the intelligence in which her spouse was supposed to be deficient, and who, as is the case in many mortal housekeepings, was constantly exerting her ingenuity in repairing the blunders of her lord and master.

The Land of the Tchuktchi.-Their independent Spirit and commercial Enterprise.-Perpetual Migrations.-The Fair of Ostrownoje.-Visit in a Tchuktch Polog.-Races.-Tchuktch Bayaderes.-The Tennygk, or Reindeer Tchuktchi.-The Onkilon, or Sedentary Tchuktchi.-Their Mode of Life.

AT

T the extreme north-eastern point of Asia, bounded by the Polar Ocean on one side and the Sea of Bering on the other, lies the land of the Tchuktchi. The few travellers who have ever visited that bleak promontory describe it as one of the dreariest regions of the earth. The climate is dreadfully cold, as may be expected in a country confined between icy seas. Before July 20th there is no appearance of summer, and winter already sets in about August 20th. The lower grounds shelving to the north are intersected with numerous streams, which, however, enjoy their liberty but a short time of the year; the valleys are mostly swampy and filled with small lakes or ponds; while on the bleak hill-slopes the Vaccinium and the dwarf birch or willow sparingly vegetate under a carpet of mosses and lichens. The eastern, northeastern, and partly also the southern coasts abound with walruses, sea-lions, and seals, while the reindeer, the argali, the wolf, and the Arctic fox occupy the land. During the short summer, geese, swans, ducks, and wading-birds. frequent the marshy grounds; but in winter the snow-owl and the raven alone remain, and constantly follow the path of the nomadic inhabitants. In this desolate nook of the Old World lives the only aboriginal people of North Asia which has known how to maintain its liberty to the present day, and which, proud of its independence, looks down with sovereign contempt upon its relations, the Korjaks, who, without offering any resistance, have yielded to the authority of Russia.