The ground was, for the most part, covered with snow; that which was free
from it appeared full of small hillocks, of a black turfy nature. I saw
about twenty or thirty cows, And the major had six stout horses. These and
their dogs are the only tame animals they possess; the necessity they are
under, in the present state of the country, of keeping great numbers of the
latter, making it impossible to bring up any cattle that are not in size
and strength a match for them. For, during the summer season, their dogs
are entirely let loose, and left to provide for themselves, which makes
them so exceedingly 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