3

terest, and is given in graphic but unpretending language, with the charms of freshness and novelty. Marvellous is the supply of fish (Salmonida) which the Kamschatkan rivers produced. At Narchiki, on a little branch of the Avatcha River, where the stream is not more than eighteen inches deep, Dr. Guillemard began for the first time dimly to realize the vast numbers of fish which annually visit the country, and which may be said lit erally to choke its rivers.

any real work in this direction, and "the | down the stream to the sea, where it was
islands still remain an almost virgin arranged the yacht was to meet them.
ground for any future explorer both in The account of this journey is full of in-
this as well as other branches of natural
history." From the Liu-Kiu Islands the
Marchesa started northward, bound for
Kamschatka, through the lonely and misty
seas of the north Pacific, and in due time
the sharp peak of the Vilutchinska volcano
a graceful cone of about seven thousand
feet revealed the position of the vessel,
which soon arrived at the narrow entrance
of the bay of Avatcha, which is described
as one of the finest harbors of the world,
if not actually the finest, Rio and Sydney
yielding the palm to their Kamschatkan
rival. The scenery of the coast of south-
eastern Kamschatka, with its precipitous
cliffs at the foot of which none but a bird
could land, its deep valleys running down
to the sea at whose mouths still lay the
accumulated masses of last winter's snow,
its pinnacle rocks like rows of huge iron
teeth, must be superb. Steaming steadily

Hundreds were in sight, absolutely touching one another, and as we crossed the river back fins were visible as far as we could see our horses nearly stepped upon them. Their the stream, and aground, and gasping in the shallows, and lying dead or dying upon the banks, were hundreds more. The odor from these decaying fish was distinctly perceptible at a distance of a couple of hundred yards or more. In weight these salmon varied from seven to fifteen, and even twenty, pounds. They, were, for the most part, foul fish— the kind known by the Russians as the Garblotchy with patches of red and white, and of busa; but others in fair condition were to be found, and with a little trouble I was able to pull out three good ten-pound fish in as many minutes with a gaff. Any other method of fishing would have been useless. It would have been nearly impossible to make a cast without foul-hooking a fish, and nine-tenths or more of them were in an uneatable condition.

towards land the Marchesa enters the
harbor of Petropaulovski, which is little
more than a hamlet of about two or three
hundred inhabitants, of whom eight or ten
are Europeans. If the human inhabitants
of the peninsula are comparatively few in
number, this is not the case with the
sledge-dogs, which abound. Dr. Guille-
mard describes the sledge-dog as wonder-
fully well trained, cunning, and enduring,
but often obstinate and unmanageable to
a degree, being apparently indifferent to
the kicks and blows showered on him by The enormous abundance of salmon
his master. He is a good hunter and which thus fill the rivers of Kamschatka
fisherman, supporting himself upon the is to the new-comer an astonishing sight.
game and salmon he catches, but seldom, The millions of fish that are caught and
in spite of his treatment, deserting his form the food throughout the year of al-
master. However, his rapacity is so great most every living creature in the country
that the inhabitants cannot keep sheep, - the cows and horses even not excepted
goats, or other of the smaller doméstic
-are, we are assured, as nothing com-
animals. Raw hides, boots, and even ba-pared with the countless myriads that
bies, it is said, occasionally vary his diet.
The harbor and rivers of Petropaulovski
teemed with fish ; and though whiting and
herring were abundant, they were left in
comparative peace owing to the ease with
which salmon were to be obtained. To
the ship's crew this place seemed little
less than a paradise; the bright sunny
weather and cold nights were a pleasant
change after tropical heat, and the fore-
castle mess was supplied with many unac
customed dainties. It was the intention
of the travellers to proceed northwards
by land, with baggage and horses, from
Avatcha Bay until they struck the head
waters of the great Kamschatka River,
then to procure boats or rafts, and to float

perish naturally. The rotting fish that lined the banks and in places lay piled in little heaps together are not the victims, as one might be disposed to conclude, of any occasional fatal epidemic; the phenomenon is a constant annual occurrence. The dwellings of the natives are huts, often combined with stables, through which one has to pass before entering the habitable room; the windows are made of strips of bear-gut sewed together, which cannot admit much light. In the corner

The garbusa or humpback, so called from the extraordinary development on the back of the kelt during the Oncorhynchus proteus of recent ichthyologists. the spawning season, is the Salmo proteus of PallasThis fish, with others, is figured in vol. i., p. 137.

of one of these rooms which the travellers | on the heights of the four chief volcanoes entered for lunch and rest," was the usual | lying to the south of the lower part of the tawdry eikon, and facing it a long array Kamschatka River was not lost sight of; of clippings from the New York Police their altitudes are given as 16,988 feet for News, full of the choicest horrors of bat- Kluchefskaya; 12,508 for Uskovska; 15,tle, murder, and sudden death"! amid 400 for Kojerevska; and 11,700 for Tolwhich lively surroundings the travellers batchinska. The first-named volcano has consumed their sour milk and bilberries, a wonderful steepness of slope, and an unpotatoes and turnips. The party struck brokenly conical shape, and is regarded the Kamschatka River not far from a little by Dr. Guillemard as being one of the hamlet called Gunal, where there are best instances that could be given of a about twenty huts and a population of mountain that owes its exact height and about ninety-four souls, all the descend- form to the slow piling up of the ashes and ants of Russians who established them- lava ejected from its crater. The Kamselves here with Kamschatdale wives in schatka volcanoes do not appear to have the last century. At this point, the head been active for many years until about waters of the river that was to bear the nine months after our author had left the travellers some four or five hundred miles country, when "a series of eruptions apbefore they reached the sea, the river is pear to have taken place which in granmerely a little stream, barely fifteen yards deur must have rivalled those described across, and not more than a foot or eigh- by Krasheninikof in 1737." It is curious teen inches deep. The travellers contin- that the only account of these eruptions is ued their land journey as far as Sherowmy, given in the Japan Gazette, and that two where they dismissed their horse-boys years after their occurrence the fact was and horses, and began their river journey, unknown both to the Royal and Royal which was made on rafts and boats. At Geographical Societies. It was synchrothe village of Melcova the party ran short nous with the terrible catastrophe at of tea and sugar, which they were able to Krakatau in Java (August, 1883); further obtain there. The tea in use is the usual information, however, is needed on this brick tea of other parts of Siberia; it is subject. made in cakes about ten inches by five, and three quarters of an inch in thickness, squeezed flat by hydraulic pressure, and stamped with large Chinese characters. "Brick tea is to a Kamschatkan what coffee is to a Lapp. It is found in the very poorest and most miserable hut, and is regarded as just as much a necessary of life as tobacco." The high price of sugar places it beyond the reach of most; the party purchased some at eighteen pence a pound. At nightfall the rafts were run ashore at the nearest beach, and the tents pitched on the stony or sandy edge of the river. The menu was not a varied one, but to our author it was the most luxurious he had ever experienced in camp life.

Arrived at Ust Kamschatka, near the mouth of the river on the east of the peninsula, the travellers' river journey was practically at an end; they were now only four miles distant from the bar at the mouth of the river. Ascending a lookout tower near the village they soon were gratified with the sight of the Marchesa approaching from the south, and thus, after a month's absence, "hit off the time of meeting with an exactness as curious as it was fortunate." The presence of two vessels in the port of Ust Kamschatka, the Marchesa and the Nemo, a Japanese walrus schooner, whose captain was a Swede, was deemed an occurrence so unusual that it was felt something should be done to celebrate it, so a feast and a ball were accordingly resolved on. the supper-table groaned with cold ducks, Swedes sent various intoxicating drinks; cranberries, brick tea, and other Kamschatkan delicacies; empty bottles served for candlesticks; the ballroom roof was low, and the "six feet three " Swedes had their heads among the dried fish and other odds and ends hanging to the rafters; the band was represented by an old fiddler who, for an uninterrupted period of six hours, gave the company the dance music most in fashion in Ust Kamschatka. The The opportunity for taking observations rank and fashion of the village were pres

Soup à la chasseur, boiled salmon, stewed

capercailzie or grouse, teal à la Kamschatdale, bilberry jam, and tea and coffee, form a very respectable meal for a traveller whose appetite has been sharpened by the keen air of a northern autumn; and it was but seldom that we failed to do justice to it. And when the journals had been written up, and the birds skinned, and we smoked our last pipe at the enormous fire before turning in, we felt, but for the natives, Kamschatka was as pleasant a country for camping as we had ever experienced.

The

ent; the "fair sex were represented by | schatka, the result of two days' visit to fourteen individuals who sat round the Betchevinskaya Bay, the total bag conroom; these ladies were "just a wee bit fishy." For the rest, our author-who is a most amusing writer as well as a man of science- shall tell his own story:

been among the party of travellers. the scenery at Meimbun he writes: —

Of | represented; while, on the other hand,
cockatoos, brush turkeys (Megapodius),
peculiar to the Austro-Malayan sub-region
of which New Guinea is the central and
typical mass, and numerous species of
pigeons, inhabit the Philippines. The
flora, as far as is known, shows similar
peculiarities; many typical Malayan gen-
era are absent, while a large Australian
and Austro-Malayan element is present in
the archipelago. Dr. Guillemard's visit
in the Sulu Islands resulted in an ornitho-
logical collection of more than two hun-
dred specimens, comprising sixty-four
genera. Before the Marchesa arrived,
very little was known of the zoology of the
archipelago. Dr. Guillemard's list, though
by no means an exhaustive one, is
than sufficient to show the main source
from which the bird life of the archipelago
is derived," so that Sulu is " geographi-
cally purely Philippine, just as it is polit-
ically by the treaty of 1885."

66 more

Had I to introduce my readers to the most un-European scene I know of, I think I should ask him to take a seat with me in a native canoe and paddle up the graceful windings of the Meimbun River. At its mouth the huts, built on seaweed-covered piles, form each a separate island. The floors are raised a bare three feet above the level of the water, and one needs not better evidence of the fact that here at least we are in stormless seas. On the palm-stem platforms in front of the entrance the natives squat, while around are playing half-a-dozen naked little Cupids, now plunging into the water, now paddling races in miniature canoes. A little further, and we enter the river, whose water is so clear and pure and bright that one longs to tumble in, clothes and all. Close to the banks lies the market-place, a picturesque jumble of ponies, ripe bananas, red sarongs, palm-leaf stalls, and flashing spears. Beyond, the sea-going praus are hauled up on shore, their unwieldy sterns a mass of quaint carving. Then through The history of the archipelago would a tiny reach bordered by the Nipa palm, whose consist of little else than a record of the graceful fronds, thirty or forty feet in length, constant civil wars which have raged bespring directly from the stream, and we find tween the natives and the hated Castilians ourselves in a sort of upper town, where the houses are built with seeming indifference since the time of their seizure of the Phileither in or out of the water. The place is ippines, and their efforts to establish their the absolute perfection of beauty and untidi-power in Sulu. By an agreement between ness. Overhead the eye rests on a wealth of verdure-bamboo, banana, durian, jack-fruit, and the arrowy betel palm, with its golden egg-like nuts. In these happy climes man's needs grow at his very door. Cold and hunger, misery and want, are words without a meaning. Civilization is far off indeed, and

for the moment, at least, we have no desire for it.

England, Spain, and Germany (in 1885), the sovereignty of Spain is recognized over the entire archipelago; i.e., all the islands lying between Mindanao and the coast of Borneo. Spain renounces all claim to north Borneo and a few small islands adjacent in favor of England, and acknowledges British sovereignty over all the islands within three miles of the mainland of north Borneo; and it is stipulated that there shall be perfect freedom of commerce and navigation in the Sulu archipelago. Of the various interesting matters which presented themselves to the travellers in the Sulu Islands we have no space to speak; we will only notice the tree which the Sulus plant in their cemetery near to the carved wooden monuments, this is a species of Michelia, called by the natives the dead man's flow

Notwithstanding the proximity of Borneo and the Philippine Islands, their flora and fauna are remarkably distinct. The former is almost typically Indo-Malayan in its zoological features; its flora shows an equally great similarity to that of the Malay peninsula. In its physical aspect also, Borneo, like Java and Sumatra, is connected with the mainland by a submarine bank of great extent, where the soundings are uniformly very shallow; so that at one period of the world's history Bor-er-tree. neo was united with and formed the south- Buddhist and Mohammedan alike plant the eastern limit of the great Asiatic continent. It is different with the Philippine Islands, which are markedly insular in their fauna and flora. Only one species of monkey inhabits the archipelago, while the species found in Borneo and other Indo-Malayan islands are numerous. Elephants, rhinoceros, tapirs, and tigers are absent, and there are only a few small rodents. Among the birds, many Malayan genera are un

Champac above their dead; so should we, too, I think, did our climate permit it. Day after day throughout the year the tree blossoms. Day after day the delicately creamy corollas fall entire upon the grave, retaining both their flower. For how long after they have closed freshness and their fragrance, unlike any other over our loved ones are our graves decorated, I wonder? Here Nature, kindlier-hearted and unforgetful, year after year lays her daily offering of Champac blossoms upon the tomb.

At Kudat, in British north Borneo, | sociability are stamped on the pet's counwhere the party stayed a week, Dr. Guille- tenance. mard was able to add considerably to his zoological collection. In one of the morning's rambles along the pleasant jungle walks and long stretches of beach, fringed with cycas and casuarina, our author came across a small bird (Mixornis bornensis) fast entangled in the web of a spider of the genus Nephila.