[16] Even so lately as Captain Krusenstern’s visit, the number of horned
    cattle at Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s amounted to no more than ten
    cows and as many young heifers; of course, he remarks, there was no
    butter, and very little milk.  But it is his opinion, that it would be
    extremely easy to support some hundred head there, as the place
    abounds in the finest grass.  Elsewhere he informs us, that it is
    calculated there are about six hundred cattle in the whole of
    Kamtschatka; a number which, for obvious reasons, he thinks may and
    ought to be increased.—­E.

[17] Extraordinary as this may appear, Krascheninikoff, whose account of
    Kamtschatka, from every thing that I saw, and had an opportunity of
    comparing it with, seems to me to deserve entire credit, and whose
    authority I shall, therefore, frequently have recourse to, relates
    instances of this kind that are much more surprising.  “Travelling
    parties,” says he, “are often overtaken with dreadful storms of snow,
    on the approach of which they drive with the utmost precipitation into
    the nearest wood, and there are obliged to stay till the tempest,
    which frequently lasts six or seven days, is over; the dogs remaining
    all this while quiet and inoffensive; except that sometimes, when
    prest by hunger, they will devour the reins and the other leathern
    parts of the harness.”—­History and Description of Kamtschatka, by
    Krascheninikof.

[18] Captain King does not seem to have heard or inferred any thing as to
    the danger usually encountered in the summer excursions on the river,
    from the nature of the vessels employed.  This, according to
    Krusenstern, infinitely more resembles a trough than a boat, being, in
    fact, the hollow trunk of a tree, and exceedingly apt to be upset by
    the rapidity of the stream.  Thus, he says, scarcely a year passes in
    which several people are not drowned, both in the Kamtschatka river
    and the Awatscha; a serious loss any where, no doubt; but in this
    country, where population is so scanty, and so uncertain, incomparably
    more important in a political point of view.—­E.

[19] On this occasion Major Behm permitted us to examine all the maps and
    charts that were in his possession.  Those relating to the peninsula of
    the Tschutski, were made in conformity to the information collected by
    Plenishner, between the years 1760 and 1770.  As the charts of
    Plenishner were afterwards made use of, according to Mr Coxe, in the
    compilation of the General Map of Russia, published by the Academy in
    1776, it may be necessary to observe, that we found them exceedingly
    erroneous; and that the compilers of the General Map seem to have been
    led into some mistakes on his authority.  Those in which the islands on
    the coast of America were laid down, we found to contain nothing new,
    and to be much less accurate than those we saw at Oonalashka.