The plenipotentiary frowned without turning his
head. Dr. Langsdorff, surgeon and naturalist, had
accompanied the Embassy to Japan, and although
Rezanov had never found any man more of a bore
and would willingly have seen the last of him at
Kamchatka, a skilful dispenser of drugs and mender
of bones was necessary in his hazardous voy-
ages, and he retained him in his suite. Langsdorff
returned his polite tolerance with all the hidden re-
sources of his spleen; but his curiosity and scientific
enthusiasm would have sustained him through
greater trials than the exactions of an autocrat,
whom at least he had never ceased to respect in the
most trying moments at Nagasaki.

"Yes," said Rezanov. "But I wonder you find
anything to admire in such unportable objects as
mountains and water. I have not seen a living
thing but gulls and seal, and God knows we had
enough of both at Sitka."

"Ah, your excellency, in a land as fertile as this,
and caressed by a climate that would coax life
from a stone, there must be an infinite number of
aquatic and aerial treasures that will add materially
to the scientific lore of Europe."

"Humph!" said Rezanov, and moved his shoulder
in an uncontrollable gesture of dismissal. But the