There is no doubt that Kamchatka would repay a detailed exploration, which it has never yet received. It is a partially settled country. The Kamchatdales are a good-humoured, harmless, and semi-civilised race, and the Russian officials and settlers at the few little towns would gladly welcome the traveller. The dogs used for sledging in winter are noble animals, infinitely stronger than those of Alaska or even Greenland. The attractions for the Alpine climber cannot be overstated. The peninsula contains a chain of volcanic peaks, attaining, it is stated, in the Klutchevskoi Mountain a height of 16,000 feet. In the country immediately behind Petropaulovski are the three peaks, Koriatski, Avatcha, and Koseldskai; the first is about 12,000 feet in height, and is a conspicuous landmark for the port. A comparatively level country, covered with rank grass and underbrush, and intersected by streams, stretches very nearly to their base. [Illustration: PETROPAULOVSKI AND THE AVATCHA MOUNTAIN.] And now, before leaving the Asiatic coast, let us, as many English naval vessels have done, pay a flying visit to a still more northern harbour, that of Plover Bay, which forms the very apex of the China Station. Sailing, or steaming, through Bering Sea, it is satisfactory to know that so shallow is it that a vessel can anchor in almost any part of it, though hundreds of miles from land.(97) Plover Bay does _not_ derive its name from the whaling which is often pursued in its waters, although an ingenious Dutchman, of the service in which the writer was engaged at the periods of his visits, persisted in calling it “Blubber” Bay; its name is due to the visit of H.M.S. _Plover_ in 1848-9, when engaged in the search for Sir John Franklin. The bay is a most secure haven, sheltered at the ocean end by a long spit, and walled in on three sides by rugged mountains and bare cliffs, the former composed of an infinite number of fragments of rock, split up by the action of frost. Besides many coloured lichens and mosses, there is hardly a sign of vegetation, except at one patch of country near a small inner harbour, where domesticated reindeer graze. On the spit before mentioned is a village of Tchuktchi natives; their tents are composed of hide, walrus, seal, or reindeer, with here and there a piece of old sail-cloth, obtained from the whalers, the whole patchwork covering a framework formed of the large bones of whales and walrus. The remains of underground houses are seen, but the people who used them have passed away. The present race makes no use of such houses. Their canoes are of skin, covering sometimes a wooden and sometimes a bone frame. On either side of one of these craft, which is identical with the Greenland “oomiak,” or women’s boat, it is usual to have a sealskin blown out tight, and the ends fastened to the gunwale; these serve as floats to steady the canoe. They often carry sail, and proceed safely far out to sea, even