disappeared. "With no other wares," says this candid man, "than a large quantity of very bad gin, the merchants travelled about the country to procure furs. As soon as one of them arrived in an ostrog, he treated his host with a glass of spirits. The Kamtschadales are all so unfortunately attached to strong liquors, that it is absolutely impossible for them to resist the pleasure of getting intoxicated. As soon as he has drank a glass of gin, which he receives for nothing, he instantly begs another, for which, however, he must pay; then a second, a third, and so on. Still, however, he has had his spirits unadulterated; but the moment he begins to be intoxicated, instead of pure spirits, they give it him mixed with water; and in order that the deception may be carried on with the more security, the merchants have the vessels, destined for the spirits, called _fliaega_, divided into two parts; in the smaller one of which they carry their unmixed spirits, and in the other the mixed. The merchant now continues to ply the Kamtschadale with the weaker liquor, until he becomes perfectly senseless, and then takes possession of his whole stock of sables and other furs, alleging, that they are to pay for the quantity of spirits which he has drank. Thus, in an unfortunate moment, the Kamtschadale loses the reward of many months labour and cost; and, instead of providing himself with powder and shot, and other necessary and indispensable articles, such as would have contributed to his own and his family's comfort, he has exhausted all his wealth for one debauch, which only weakens him, and renders him more helpless and destitute for the future. This wretchedness is accompanied by a depression of spirits, which must have a pernicious influence on his body, already weakened by disease, and which, at length, from the total want of substantial food, and of medical assistance, becomes unable to resist such frequent attacks upon it. This appears to me the cause of their annual decrease, assisted by epidemical disorders, which sweep them off in great numbers." But another cause has been assigned in addition to this very deplorable one, and this it may now be necessary to specify a little more particularly. Let the words of the same writer be taken in evidence, and we may say we have very little reason indeed to give ourselves any concern about the condition of the people in this distant settlement.--"The prospect of any increase of the inhabitants of Kamtschatka was very much diminished, not only by the smallness of the number of the remaining Russians and Kamtschadales, but by that of the women bearing no kind of proportion to the men. At Saint Peter and Saint Paul, where the number of inhabitants, including the military, amounts to one hundred and fifty, or one hundred and