An old weather beaten church and equally old barracks are near each
other, an appropriate arrangement in a country where church and state
are united. The military garrison includes thirty Cossacks, who are
under the orders of the Ispravnik. They row the pilot boat when
needed, travel on courier or other service, guard the warehouses, and
when not wanted by government labor and get drunk for themselves. The
governor was a native of Poland, and it struck me as a curious fact
that the ispravniks of Kamchatka, Ghijiga, and Ohotsk were Poles.

Cows and dogs are the only stock maintained at Ohotsk. The former live
on grass in summer, and on hay and fish in whiter. Though repeatedly
told that cows and horses in Northeastern Siberia would eat dried fish
with avidity, I was inclined to skepticism. Captain Mahood told me he
had seen them eating fish in winter and appearing to thrive on it.
What was more singular, he had seen a cow eating fresh salmon in
summer when the hills were covered with grass.

There is a story that Cuvier in a fit of illness, once imagined His
Satanic Majesty standing before him.

"Ah!" said the great naturalist, "horns, hoofs; graniverous; needn't
fear him."

I wonder if Cuvier knew the taste of the cows at Ohotsk? No ship had
visited Ohotsk for nearly a year before our arrival, though half a
dozen whalers had passed in sight. A steamer goes annually from the
Amoor with a supply of flour and salt on government account. The mail
comes once a year, so that the postmaster has very little to do for
three hundred and sixty-four days. Sometimes the mail misses, and then