all officers keep dogs, so that in this
    respect they are not burthen-some to the Kamtschadales; but a story is
    told of a magistrate high in office, having been here a short time
    since, who never travelled but in a sledge like a small house, drawn
    by an hundred dogs.  Besides this, he is said to have journeyed with
    such rapidity, that at every station several of these animals
    belonging to the Kamtschadales expired, which he never paid for.  In
    the summer, the Kamtschadale is obliged to be always ready with his
    boat to conduct the traveller either up or down the rivers; nor can
    the soldier be sent any where without having one of these people for
    his guide.  Thus it frequently happens that they are absent a fortnight
    or more from their ostrog, and lose the best opportunity of providing
    themselves with fish for the winter, as, besides the mere act of
    taking the fish, it requires several days of fine summer weather to
    dry them.  If the wet should set in, during this operation, the fish
    instantly becomes magotty, and the whole stock is rendered useless. 
    From the great numbers of soldiers, (as, besides the cossacks, there
    is a battalion of five hundred men, and about twenty officers,
    quartered in Kamtschatka), and the small number of Kamtschadales, it
    must be sufficiently evident, that the latter are frequently taken
    from their work, and, it may be added, almost without remuneration;
    for the post-money allowed by the crown, which amounts to one kopeck
    the werst, considering the high price of every article, is, surely,
    not only an inconsiderable, but an insulting reward for the service
    performed,” Thus far K. To some readers, it may be necessary to
    mention, in order to their due understanding of this reward, that 100
    kopecks make a rouble, the value of which varies according to the rate
    of exchange from 2s. 6d. to 4s. 2d.  British, having been so low as the
    former rate in the year 1803, and that three wersts are about equal to
    two English miles, so that we may fairly enough estimate this insult,
    as K. expresses it, at one half-penny per mile!—­E.

[87] Krusenstern’s description of the houses and their contents is exactly
    in proportion to the other parts of his very unfavourable report.  Even
    of two of them, which he says are the very ornament of Kamtschatka,
    the furniture is represented as most wretchedly deficient.  “That of
    the anti-room consisted merely of a wooden stool, a table, and two or
    three broken chairs.  There was neither earthen-ware nor porcelain
    table-service; no glasses, decanters, nor any thing else of a similar
    nature; two or three tea-cups, one glass, a few broken knives and
    forks, and some pewter spoons, constituted the wealth of the good