AVATCHA BAY, IN KAMTCHATKA.—ATTACK UPON PETROPAVLOVSK BY THE ALLIED FLEET.—DOGS AND DOG-DRIVING.—RAPID TRAVELLING WITH A DOG-TEAM.—POPULATION AND RESOURCES OF KAMTCHATKA.—REINDEER AND THEIR USES.—THE AMOOR RIVER.—NATIVE TRIBES AND CURIOUS CUSTOMS.—TIGERS IN SIBERIA.—NAVIGATION OF THE AMOOR.—OVERLAND TRAVELLING IN SIBERIA.—RIDING IN A TARANTASSE.—A ROUGH ROAD.—AN AMUSING MISTAKE.—FROM STRATENSK TO NERTCHINSK.—GOLD-MINING IN SIBERIA.  
"My first visit to the Russian Empire," said Mr. Hegeman, "was made from San Francisco across the Pacific Ocean. I sailed out of the Golden Gate in the direction of Kamtchatka, and after a voyage of thirty days we sighted the summit of Avatcha Mountain, a magnificent volcano that serves as a landmark to vessels approaching Avatcha Bay. This bay is one of the finest I have ever seen. I do not think it surpassed by the famous bays of Naples or Rio Janeiro."
 A SIBERIAN VILLAGE.
Doctor Bronson nodded assent to Mr. Hegeman's opinion. He had[Pg 290] been in Avatcha Bay, which he briefly described to the youths while Mr. Hegeman was lighting a cigar.
 PETROPAVLOVSK, KAMTCHATKA.—MOUNT AVATCHA IN BACKGROUND.
"It is about ten miles across, and nearly circular," said the Doctor, "and its entrance from the ocean is nearly a mile in width. Avatcha Mountain is directly in front of the entrance, so that a navigator entering the bay has little more to do than steer straight towards the volcano and keep his vessel midway between the two sides of the entrance. Around the bay there are six or eight little harbors, completely landlocked. On[Pg 291] one of these harbors is Petropavlovsk (Port of St. Peter and St. Paul), the principal place of trade in Kamtchatka. Once it had a population of two or three thousand. It was attacked by the allied fleets in the Crimean War, and suffered severely. After the war the naval headquarters were removed to Nicolayevsk, at the mouth of the Amoor."
 A HERD OF REINDEER.
"There is an interesting bit of history connected with the attack upon Petropavlovsk," Mr. Hegeman remarked, as the Doctor paused.
"In the autumn of 1854 a combined fleet of six English and French ships attacked Petropavlovsk, and were twice beaten off by some land batteries and a Russian frigate moored in the harbor. Their commanders determined to make an assault by land with a strong force of sailors and marines. They attempted to take the town in the rear, but the Russian sharp-shooters created a panic among them, and drove the assailants over a steep bank about two hundred feet high.
"The English admiral committed suicide in consequence of his disappointment, and the fleet sailed away. Next year seventeen ships came there together, as the allies had determined to conquer the town at all hazards. The Russians abandoned the place and retired over the hills, but they left five or six hundred dogs behind them. The allied fleet remained[Pg 292] at anchor for an entire day without venturing to land, as it was supposed that there must be a very large garrison to keep so many dogs."
"The baying of the dogs kept them at bay," whispered Frank to Fred.
"Yes," replied the latter, "kept them anchored in the bay."
"There was only one man, an American merchant, in the place when the allies landed. He remained to protect his own property, and had the American flag above his establishment. The allies burned all of the Government buildings and stores, but did not injure anything else."
Frank asked how they happened to have so many dogs in a small place like this.
"Dogs are the beasts of burden of the country," was the reply, "and without them the people would have much difficulty in getting about. The dogs of Kamtchatka are much like the Eskimo dogs in appearance, character, and qualities, and are employed for the same purposes. They draw sledges over the snow and ice in winter, and are capable of great speed and endurance. With a light load they can travel fifty miles a day for a week or more, and on some occasions they have been known to make a single trip of one hundred miles and more without resting. They are harnessed in pairs with a leader, and a team consists of anywhere from three to twenty-one dogs. A great deal depends on the leader, and he is always chosen from among the most intelligent of the dogs. An ordinary dog is worth from five to ten dollars, while a leader readily brings from forty to fifty dollars.
 DOG TEAMS AND REINDEER.
"The best travelling I ever heard of with a dog-team," continued Mr. Hegeman, "was when a courier was sent to carry to Petropavlovsk the announcement of the Crimean War. Without changing teams he went from Boltcheresk to Petropavlovsk (one hundred and twenty-five miles) in twenty-three hours!"
One of the youths asked what the dogs lived upon.
"They live almost entirely upon fish," was the reply, "and they eat it in any condition—fresh, dried, or half decayed. Salmon are very abundant in Kamtchatka, and the cheapest thing for feeding the dogs. One fish a day is the ordinary allowance for a dog; but while he is on a journey he receives only half his usual ration. The natives all say that these animals travel better half fed than when fully nourished, and many persons do not give them anything whatever for an entire day before they are to start on a journey."
Many anecdotes about the dogs of Kamtchatka were given, and Frank and Fred were so interested in the subject that they forgot to note down what was said. When questioned about it afterwards, Frank said he learned[Pg 293]
[Pg 294] that it requires much experience to drive a dog-team; that the man who is to drive must feed his own dogs and make them know he is their master; that they will run away whenever they have the opportunity; and they have a treacherous, thieving disposition. They are brave in large numbers, but always cowardly when alone. Epidemics among them are frequent, and sometimes whole tribes of natives are thus deprived of their dogs and unable to move about.
"For further canine particulars," said Frank, "we refer you to 'The Voyage of the Vivian to the North Pole and Beyond.' The youths who made that remarkable journey had considerable practical experience with dogs, and they personally visited Kamtchatka on their way to the Pole."
"Kamtchatka has about seven thousand inhabitants altogether," said Mr. Hegeman. "Twelve or fifteen hundred are Russians, and the rest belong to aboriginal tribes. They are chiefly engaged in hunting and fishing; there is very little agriculture in the country, as the climate is too cold to permit the cultivation of grain or garden vegetables. Kamtchatka is chiefly useful for its fur products. Five or six thousand sables are killed there every year, and considerable numbers of ermine, foxes, and other fur-bearing animals. Bears are numerous and dangerous, and so are wolves, which are very fierce in winter, though not at all troublesome in the summer-time. Earthquakes are not unfrequent in Kamtchatka, but they do little damage, and are looked upon more as amusements than anything else.
 LIGHT-HOUSE AT GHIJIGHA.
"From Kamtchatka I went in a ship to Ghijigha, on the Okhotsk Sea," continued Mr. Hegeman. "Ghijigha is very much like Petropavlovsk, and has the same sort of population—a mixture of Cossacks, peasants, and natives. It is at the head of a narrow bay, and its light-house is nothing[Pg 295] more than an octagonal hut with a fire on the roof. Many of the inhabitants are the descendants of exiles who were sent to the country down to about the middle of this century.
 ERMINE-TRAP.
"In the time of Catherine the Great, many Poles were sent to Kamtchatka, and it is a curious circumstance that the first voyage from that country to a foreign port was made under the Polish flag. Several Poles seized a small ship in the harbor and put to sea. They had no nautical knowledge, and no instruments for navigation, but managed to reach Loo Choo, and afterwards the port of Macao, in safety.
"At Ghijigha there were more dogs and more fish. I had my choice to go by land to the mouth of the Amoor River, or by sea. I chose the latter course; if I had gone by land I should have divided my time between riding on reindeer, riding after dogs, or going on foot."
Fred thought it would be very nice to ride on a reindeer, and earnestly wished he could try it.
 INTERIOR OF A NATIVE HOUSE.
"I think a very short trial would satisfy you," replied Mr. Hegeman; "at any rate it was enough for me. You have a saddle which is simply a pad without stirrups, and must maintain your balance by means of a stick that you rest on the ground as the animal walks. An inexperienced man falls off a dozen times an hour for the first few days, and even old travellers[Pg 296] get a good many tumbles in the course of twenty-four hours. The saddle is directly over the shoulders of the beast, as it would break his back if placed where we ordinarily put the saddle on a horse. Consequently you are shaken at every footstep—an excellent thing for a dyspeptic, but not agreeable to a man in good health.
 THE REINDEER.
"Between the Okhotsk Sea and the Arctic Ocean the wealth of the country is in reindeer. Some natives own as many as forty thousand of these animals, and herds of a thousand or more are not at all rare. The natives wander from place to place in search of pasturage. In summer the deer eat the mosses and shrubbery that spring up all over the country, and in winter they scrape away the snow to feed on the moss beneath it. The native uses the reindeer to ride upon or to draw his sledge; he eats the flesh of the animal, and makes clothing and tent-covering of his skin. In fact he cannot get along without the reindeer any more than could the native of Newfoundland exist without the codfish.
"But I was willing to let the natives have a monopoly of the reindeer for riding purposes, and took passage in a ship for the Amoor River.
"The Amoor is the greatest river of Siberia, and flows into the Pacific Ocean. It is navigable twenty-three hundred miles from its mouth, and receives several important streams from the south. In one part of its course it makes a great bend to the south, where it flows through magnificent forests containing several trees peculiar to the tropics. The tiger roams up to the south bank of the river at this point, and the reindeer comes down to it on the north; occasionally the tiger crosses the river and feeds upon the reindeer—the only place in the world where these two animals come together naturally."
"What a funny idea!" exclaimed Frank. "To think of tigers in Siberia!"
"Tigers are found elsewhere in Siberia," continued their informant.[Pg 297] "In the museum at Barnaool, in the Altai Mountains, I saw the skins of two large tigers that were killed in a Siberian farm-yard not far from that place, where they had come to kill one of the farmer's oxen. Tiger-hunting is a regular sport with the Russian officers in that part of Manjouria belonging to Siberia, and over a considerable part of the region bordering upon China and Persia. But to return to the Amoor.
 FISH-MARKET AT NICOLAYEVSK.
"I remained several days at Nicolayevsk, the capital of the Maritime Province of Siberia, and a place of considerable importance. From there I ascended the river on a Russian steamboat, passing through the country of several tribes of people. There were Goldees, Gilyaks, and Manyargs, and others whose names would be like Greek to you, and therefore I will not bother you to remember them. They live by hunting and fishing, and have permanent villages on the banks of the river, in places where the fishing is best. In the fishing season they always have large quantities of fish hung out to dry, and consequently you can generally smell a native village before you see it.
 SCENERY ON THE AMOOR.
"The boat landed near a Gilyak village, and I went to see how the natives lived. They were not particularly civil; in fact they hardly recognized[Pg 298] our presence, but kept at work in the preparation of the morning's catch of fish as though nobody was looking on. There were a dozen or more wolfish-looking dogs, and we came near being bitten by the brutes. The natives made a pretence of driving the dogs off, but were not half as earnest as we were on the subject.
 GILYAK WOMAN. GILYAK MAN.
"They have some interesting customs and superstitions. They are pagans in religious matters, and worship idols and animals, and they have a reverence for the tiger, eagle, bear, and cat. They keep eagles in cages, and when they can catch a bear or tiger they use him for a religious ceremony, which ends with the animal being slaughtered. His flesh is eaten under the impression that it gives strength and courage to the eaters.[Pg 299] They will not allow fire to be carried out of their houses, through fear of evil consequences, and they formerly had the custom of killing those who came to visit them. The more amiable he was, the greater was the chance of his being murdered."
Fred asked how it could be explained.
"Very easily, when you know the reason," was the reply. "They believe that the spirits of the dead remain where they left the body, and guard and protect the spot. When a man whom they liked was about to leave, they did not hesitate to kill him for the sake of retaining his spirit among them. A Russian priest was killed in this way, and the Government made the Gilyaks understand that they must put an end to the practice.
 NATIVE BOAT—AMOOR RIVER.
"The Gilyaks have small fields and gardens, and do a little agriculture, but their great reliance is upon the river, which supplies them with fish for food and clothing."
"How can fish supply clothing?" Frank asked, with a look of surprise.
"Easily enough," was the reply. "The Gilyaks and other people of the Amoor take the skins of fishes, beat them till the scales fall off, dress them with oil till they are pliable, and then fashion them into garments. I have seen some very[Pg 300] good coats and jackets made of fish-skins. The prettiest Gilyak girl I saw (and she had no great beauty to boast of) wore a coat of fish-skin that was gathered closely in at the neck and held around the waist by a girdle. A few yards away you couldn't distinguish it from cloth.
 GOLDEE CHILDREN.
"The Gilyaks row their boats by pulling alternately on the oars, while the Goldees, who are higher up the river, pull the oars simultaneously. The houses of the Goldees are superior in every way to those of the Gilyaks. They are warmed by means of wooden pipes passing beneath benches on three sides of the room, and serving as seats by day and beds at night. Like the Gilyaks, the Goldees live chiefly by fishing, but they give more attention to agriculture, and many of them have cows and horses. One day we passed a village where a large fleet of boats was engaged in fishing for salmon and sturgeon. Two men tried a race with the[Pg 301] steamboat, and fairly beat us for a short distance, though we were making nine or ten miles against the current.
"The Russians have established villages along the Amoor at intervals of twenty or thirty miles, where the steamboats are supplied with wood. Some of these villages are close to the native ones, and the people live in perfect harmony. At one of our stopping-places I suggested that I would like to see the inside of a Goldee house, and the captain kindly accompanied me to the native village.
 A GOLDEE MAN AND WOMAN.
"Guided by a Russian peasant, we picked our way among the drying fish, and reached the door. It was quite late in the evening, and all the people had gone to sleep. With some difficulty we roused the owner of the place, and persuaded him to admit us. Our guide carried a torch of birch bark, and as he held it aloft the sight revealed to us was a strange one.
"Twenty or thirty persons ............