Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1871-07-13
From Chambers Journal
I'm Kamchatka.

The Kamtchadals are chiefly enga.
ged in fishing, fur-trapping, and the
cultivation Of rye, turnips, cabbages,
and potatoes The few Russians are
scattered among their villages, and
trade for furs with them and tho
nomadic tribes to the northward.
The Wandering Koraks, who are the
widest and mostandependent natives
IN tho peninsula, seldom come south
Of the fifty-eighth parallel Of latitude
except for the purposes OF trade.
Their chosen haunts are the great
desolate steppes which lie to the east
ward of Penjinsk Cult, where they
wander constantly from place to
place in solitary bands living in large
fur tents, and depending tor subsist
ence on their vast herds of reindeer.
The whole peninsula is supposed to
be governed by Russian "Ispravaik,'
or local governor, but the Koraks
are not really governed At all, nor
do they require ruling. They are
the most harmless aud meritorious OF
savages, exceedingly interesting in a
very strange way. One feels, in
reading Of them, as if they were crea-
lures an Arctic mythology, dim aud
grim even beyond the scandinavian
tenants of shades whose fields are
ice fields, and whose ghostly light
comes from tho flaming swords ofth
aurora borealis. The settlement of
the Southern natives, who are dark,
swarthy and smaller than the pure
Siberians, with all their rudeness, are
not wanting in comfort, and the FOL
lowing picture il attractive as we'll a.
vivid: "If you can imagine . rough
American backwoods settlement Of
log houses clustered around gayly
colored Turkish mosque, halt dozen
small haystacks mounted on high ver-
tical posts, fifteen or twenty titanic
wooden grid-irons similarly elevated ,
and hung full Of drying fish, few dog
sledges and canoes lying carelessly
around, and q hundred or more gray
wolves tied here and there between
the houses to long heavy poles, you
will have q general but tolerablv &C.
curate idea Of Kamtchadal settle
ment. They differ somewhat in re-
spect to their size and their churches !;
but the gray loghouses conical 'bolo-
gans' drying fish, wolfish dogs, ca
noes, sledges aud fishy odors are al
| invariable features" Like the Esqui-
maux, though without the same terri
BILE conditions to explain their decay,
the Kamtchadals are dying out. Since
1870 their numbers have diminished
one half. They have already lost
most of their distinctive customs
and superstitlons and only the oc-
casional sacrifice Of = dog, to some
malignant spirit OF storm or disease,
enables the modern traveller to catch
= glimpse Of their original paganism.
They depend chiefly on the sslmon.
which literally choke the rivers, for
their subsistence but the whole pen
| insula abounds IN animal life. Reint
deer, aud black and brown bears
roam about everywhere; species Of
ibex inhabits the mountain; aud mill
ions Of ducks, geese, and swans swarm
about every river and little marshy
lake througout the country. MI.
Kennan's account Of tho reception CIV
en- to the Major, Dodd, and himself =
q settlement whose name hc never at.
tempted to master, but which he calls
Jerusalem, is one to capslxe al ones
previous notions OF kamchatka.