I had an extreme desire to see the town of Nijenei-Kamtschatka, and had long thought how to satisfy it; to have left the peninsula without visiting the capital, I should have considered as an unpardonable fault. My curiosity did not interfere with my resolution of travelling with all possible expedition. I was obliged indeed to make a circuit, but it was not so far as to occasion a delay of any consequence. Having concerted with M. Kasloff, who was anxious to procure every thing that could render my journey agreeable and safe, I engaged to join him at the village of Yelofki, where the arrangement of some affairs of his government would detain him several days. That I might lose less time, I took leave of him the evening of our arrival at Tolbatchina. But the roads were still worse than any we had yet met with. It was with the utmost difficulty I could reach Kosirefski by break of day, a village sixty-six wersts from Tolbatchina. I made no stay, elated with having happily escaped all the dangers that beset me in so terrible a road, and in the darkness of the night[73]. I conceived that I had nothing to fear in the day, and proceeded with a kind of confidence for which I was soon punished. After having travelled a considerable number of wersts upon the Kamtschatka, which I had been delighted to find again, and the width of which in this place particularly struck me, I was obliged to quit it and enter a sort of strait, where the snow, driven by the hurricanes, presented an uneven and deceitful surface. It was impossible to see or avoid the rocks that surrounded me. I presently heard a crack that told me my sledge was damaged; it was in reality one of my skates broken in two. My guides assisted me in adjusting it in the best manner we could, and we had the good fortune to reach Ouchkoff without any other accident. It was midnight, and we travelled this day sixty-six wersts. My first care was to refit my sledge, which detained me till the next day. There are in this village one isba, and eleven balagans; the number of inhabitants is reduced to five families, who are divided into three yourts. In the neighbourhood is a lake which abounds so much with fish, that all the villages round resort to it for their winter stock. It is also a considerable resource for the capital, which would otherwise be almost destitute of a provision of the first necessity throughout the peninsula. I left Ouchkoff early in the morning, and at noon had travelled forty-four wersts, partly upon the Kamtschatka, and partly across extensive heaths. The first village I came to was Krestoff. It was a little larger than the preceding ostrog, but similar in other respects to what I had before seen. I only stayed to change my dogs. Hitherto I had pursued the road which M. Kasloff was to take to get to Yelofki; but instead of proceeding like him to Khartchina, I directed my course, upon coming out of Krestoff, towards the village of Klutchefskaïa, which is thirty wersts from it.