The houses were furnished quite primitively. Beds were of bearskins
and blankets, and the floor was the only bedstead. There were rustic
tables of hewn boards, and benches without backs. In a storehouse
there was a Fairbanks' scale, somewhat worn and rusty, and I found a
tuneless melodeon from Boston and a coffee mill from New York.

The town of Ghijiga is on the bank of the river, twelve miles from the
light-house, and the route thither was overland or by water, at one's
choice. Overland there was a footpath crossing a hill and a wet
tundra. The journey by water was upon the Ghijiga river; five versts
of rowing and thirteen of towing by men or dogs. As it was impossible
to hire a horse, I repudiated the overland route altogether, and tried
a brief journey on the river, but could not reach the town and return
in time for certain engagements. Ghijiga has a population of less
than three hundred, and closely resembles Petropavlovsk. Two or three
foreign merchants go there annually with goods to exchange for furs
which the Russian traders gather. The inhabitants are Russians or half
breeds, the former predominating. The half breeds are said to possess
all the vices of both races with the virtues of neither.

Mr. Bilzukavitch, the Ispravnik of Ghijiga, was a native of Poland,
and governed seventy-two thousand square miles of territory, with a
population of sixteen hundred taxed males. His military force
comprised thirty Cossacks with five muskets, of which three were
unserviceable. The native tribes included in the district of Ghijiga
are the Koriaks and Chukchees; the Koriaks readily pay tribute and
acknowledge the Russian authority, but the Chukchees are not yet
fairly subdued. They were long in open war with the Russians, and
though peace is now established, many of them are not tributary. Those
who visit the Russian towns are compelled to pay tribute and become