The Kamchadale dogs are of the same breed as those used by the Esquimaux, but are said to possess more strength and endurance.  The best Asiatic dogs are among the Koriaks, near Penjinsk Gulf, the difference being due to climate and the care taken in breeding them.  Dogs are the sole reliance for winter travel in Kamchatka, and every resident considers it his duty to own a team.  They are driven in odd numbers, all the way from three to twenty-one.  The most intelligent and best trained dog acts as a leader, the others being harnessed in pairs.  No reins are used, the voice of the driver being sufficient to guide them.

[Illustration:  A KAMCHATKA TEAM.]

Dogs are fed almost entirely upon fish.  They receive their rations daily at sunset, and it is always desirable that each driver should feed his own team.  The day before starting on a journey, the dog receives a half ration only, and he is kept on this slender diet as long as the journey lasts.  Sometimes when hungry they gnaw their reindeer skin harnesses, and sometimes they do it as a pastime.  Once formed, the habit is not easy to break.  Two kinds of sledges are used, one for travel and the other for transporting freight.  The former is light and just large enough for one person with a little baggage.  The driver sits with his feet hanging over the side, and clings to a bow that rises in front.  In one hand he holds an iron-pointed staff, with which he retards the vehicle in descending 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.