[38] It may not be ill-timed to mention here, what Captain Krusenstern says
    as to the scarcity of gunpowder in Kamtschatka, to which Captain King
    alludes in his account of bear-hunting.  It is owing to the deficiency
    of this article, that the inhabitants are so seldom provided with
    certain luxuries of the table, as the wild sheep, or argalis, rein-
    deer, hares, ducks, and geese, with most or all of which the country
    is tolerably well stocked.  The conveyance of this most useful material
    from the provinces of European Russia, is both difficult and exposed
    to different accidents; such as getting wet, or, what is still worse,
    taking fire; in consequence of which latter occurrence, it is said,
    whole villages have been destroyed.  To prevent this mischief, as much
    as possible, we are informed, that gunpowder is now forbidden to be
    brought for private sale.  This prohibition, as is usual in all such
    cases, is often evaded, and, by augmenting the price of the article,
    of course excites the stronger disposition on the part of the merchant
    to introduce it.  The Kamtschadale, therefore, purchases powder
    secretly, and at a very high price; he uses it sparingly, and that
    only for defence against bears; or to kill some animal, whose skin he
    knows will repay the cost of getting it.  As, in many respects, it is
    an article of indispensable necessity, and as therefore the people
    must have it in some way or other, Captain Krusenstern recommends,
    that, with many other commodities, it should be sent from
    Cronstadt.—­E.

[39] The reader will probably not dislike to see another instance of the
    bear’s cunning, in the mode of catching a peculiar sort of fish called
    kachly, which abounds in Kamtschatka, and of which he is exceedingly
    fond.  We are told by Krusenstern, that as soon as this animal
    perceives the shoals of kachly going up the river, he places himself
    in the water, within a short distance of the bank, and in such a
    position of his legs, as that the fish, which always goes straight
    forward, may have just space enough to pass between them.  He then
    watches his opportunity, when a good many have entered the snare, to
    press his legs together, so as to inclose his prey, with which, at one
    spring, he jumps on shore, where he devours them at his leisure.  This
    practice is much to be commended for the spirit of independence it
    indicates; but not so another one, which some authors have charged
    against these sagacious animals, viz. dragging the fishermen’s nets
    out of the water, during their absence, and then robbing them of the
    fish they contained.  Mr Bingley’s Animal Biography, where this piece
    of pilfering is mentioned, may be advantageously consulted for several
    amusing notices respecting the habits and capabilities of this
    creature, which are quite in unison with Captain King’s account.—­E.