Kamtscatdales.-See Plate, No. 70.

The Kamtschatdales are of low stature, have broad shoulders, large head, swarthy complexion, long flat nose, prominent cheek bones, small sunken eyes, large mouths, thin lips, and very little beard. They are mild and hospitable, and live together in great harmony. They subsist chiefly on fish, which they most commonly eat raw; and their habits of living are extremely filthy; yet their manners are lively and cheerful; their songs full of gay images; and they possess the talent of mimicry to an uncommon degree.

They have two kinds of habitations, one for winter, and the other for summer. The winter habitations are sunk some feet into the ground. In constructing their summer houses, they place a number of posts at equal distances from each other, which serve as pillars to support a platform raised about 12 feet from the ground. This platform, covered with clay, forms the floor, whence the house ascends in the form of a cone, covered with thatch and dried grass. They possess but few articles of furniture. Hunting and fishing are their principal employments. They have nominally adopted the Christian religion from the Russians, yet they know little more of it than the rite of baptism.

A striking peculiarity in the Kamtschatdale manners consists in the use of dogs for the purpose of labour and travelling. These dogs are not very large, but resemble the mountain or shepherd dogs of Europe. Every individual owns at least five of these dogs. In the summer, when their services are not required, they are left to provide for themselves, by ranging over the country, and along the sides of lakes and rivers; but at the approach of winter they regularly return home to their masters. They are harnessed in a sledge, two and two abreast, with one peculiarly intelligent and well trained, placed in front as a leader. For carrying an individual, five dogs are commonly used; and a greater number for conveying baggage or commodities. Krusenstern mentions a governor in the country, who used to travel in a sledge like a small house, drawn by 100 dogs.

The travelling sledge is in the form of an oblong basket, both extremities of which are elevated in a curve. It is

a box three feet long, and one foot broad, and is raised about three feet from the ground. It is placed on two parallel planks or runners, bent upward in front like skates. The whole vehicle is remarkably light, sometimes weighing only about 10 pounds. The seat of the charioteer is covered with a bear's skin. He sits either astride, or more commonly side ways, like a lady on horseback. The highest achievement, however, is to drive standing on one foot. The utmost dexterity is requisite in the driver in order to keep his seat, and also to preserve the sledge from being overturned.

The dogs are trained to the service when young; and are taught to obey the voice of the driver in setting off, stopping, turning to the right or left; but those that are well trained are guided rather by signals than sounds. For this purpose the driver carries in his hand a curved stick, which he employs also to preserve the sledge from being overset, and which is sometimes pointed with iron, to take a firmer hold of the ice; while the other end is provided with iron rings, which serve as bells to encourage the dogs. He turns them to the left by merely striking this stick upon the ice; or to the right, by striking the poles of the sledge; or stops their progress, by placing it between the snow and the front of the vehicle; or corrects them, when inattentive, by throwing it among them; and to recover it, as he passes rapidly along, is the greatest test of his skill.

LAKE BAIKAL.

Lake Baikal is 360 miles in length, and upwards of 50, where widest, in breadth. It is interspersed with islands, has very valuable fisheries, and abounds in seals, which are said to be found no where else at a distance from the ocean. The water is so transparent, that, at the depth of eight fathoms, the bottom is distinctly seen; yet at a distance it assumes a greenish hue. In some of the central gulfs the depth is so immense, that a line of more than 3,000 fathoms could not reach the bottom. On its borders are springs impregnated with sulphur and naptha; one of them is so hot, that birds are boiled in it in the space of 12 minutes.

In few places could a person, who should traverse the

globe, meet with an object more truly interesting than the Baikal, whether we consider the rude sublimity of its scenery, or the singular phenomena, which both the lake itself and the surrounding country present to the observation of the naturalist. Those who have visited this wonderful place, seem at a loss for language adequate to the feelings which it excites, when first beheld. After travelling through a vast extent of country, diversified by neither lake nor sea, the traveller at length reaches a chain of rugged mountains, which, forming an immense amphitheatre, inclose a lake that stretches far beyond the reach of sight, and by the violent agitation and dreadful roaring of its billows, sometimes assumes all the magnificence of a mighty ocean, while, at other times, the clearness of its unruffled bosom emulates the lustre of the finest mirror.

The traces of those tremendous concussions, by which our world has once been agitated, are here extremely discernible. The lake itself can only be regarded as an enormous gulf, formed by the rending of mountains, and intended by nature as a reservoir for her immense stores of water; while its rocky shores bear, in almost every spot, the visible marks of some terrible revolution, of which they indicate, at the same time, the remote antiquity. Its channel consists of the broken fragments of hills, the largest of which still rise above the surface in the form of islands. Its coast is one heap of broken rocks, piled above each other to the height of 40 fathoms. Cliffs, whose bases are sunk into unfathomable pits, lift their shattered summits to the clouds; and on the pinnacles of the loftiest mountains are found enormous stones of whimsical shapes, which could only be projected thither by some violent convulsion of the earth.

The navigation of the lake is rendered dangerous by tremendous storms and furious hurricanes; and also by frequent earthquakes, which, though slight, sometimes produce the most violent internal agitations. The three principal rivers that flow into the Baikal are the Upper Angara, the Bargusin, and the Salenga. The only visible outlet is the Lower or Great Angara, which, bursting from its western side with impetuous rapidity, through a channel more than a mile broad, interspersed too with huge fragments of rock, presents a scene of awful sublimity,