hills, or brings it to a halt. A traveling sledge weighs about
twenty-five pounds, but a freight sledge is much heavier.

A good team will travel from forty to sixty miles a day with favorable
roads. Sometimes a hundred a day may be accomplished, but very rarely.
Once an express traveled from Petropavlovsk to Bolcheretsk, a hundred
and twenty-five miles, in twenty-three hours, without change of dogs.

Wolves have an inconvenient fondness for dog meat, and occasionally
attack travelers. A gentleman told me that a wolf once sprang from the
bushes, seized and dragged away one of his dogs, and did not detain
the team three minutes. The dogs are cowardly in their dispositions,
and will not fight unless they have large odds in their favor. A pack
of them will attack and kill a single strange dog, but would not
disturb a number equaling their own.

Most of the Russian settlers buy their dogs from the natives who breed
them. Dogs trained to harness are worth from ten to forty roubles
(dollars) each, according to their quality. Leaders bring high prices
on account of their superior docility and the labor of training them.
Epidemics are frequent among dogs and carry off great numbers of them.
Hydrophobia is a common occurrence.

The Russian inhabitants of Kamchatka are mostly descended from
Cossacks and exiles. There is a fair but not undue proportion of half
breeds, the natural result of marriage between natives and immigrants.
There are about four hundred Russians at Petropavlovsk, and the same
number at each of two other points. The aboriginal population is about
six thousand, including a few hundred dwellers on the Kurile Islands.