American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-03-20
Scenes In Kamtschatka and Siberia.

THE weekly "free lecture to the peo-
pie" was delivered last evening in the
large hall of Cooper Institute by MIR.
George KEENAN,, of Medina, n. Y. The
subject chosen was Life in Siberia and
kamtschatka-" Thelecturer was one of
an exploring party sent out in 1865 to Sc
lect the best route for connecting St
petersburg with the United States by
telegraph He commenced by humor-
the party from San Francisco to the
Russian shores, and then delineated in Il
graphic manner the life and occupations
of the Russian peasantry. The marriage
relations, he said, were peculiar. Rus
sian could obtain wife for sum equiv
alent to ten cents in currency, and from
that upward. After the ceremony was
performed at the church a feast was
usually provided at the residence of the
parents of the bride, at which the felicity
existing between the newly-wedded pair
was manifested by partaking of food
from the same dish. During the ban
quet he said it was customary for some
person to exclaim sour" in the Russian
language, at which exclamation the
bridegroOM would drop his knife and
fork, and, throwing his arms around
his wife, Would salute her with hearty
kisses The, frequency with which
fered sadly with their supper. The
speaker next narrated his experience
while journeying on horseback through
kAmtschatka in autun-n n. The scenery
at that season he said was delightfully."-
picturesque. The deep gorges interven-
ing between the snow-capped mountains,
the glowing tints of the foliage of decay
ing vegetation, were all better calculated
to remind the traveller of California
than of that frozen country. The tenn
perature for short time at that season,
he said, was mild and genial. Shortly
after the beginr ing of the month of
october, however, the weather grew
cold very rapidly, and increased in Sc
verify at the end of the year. There
were in Kamtschatka large number of
colonists from Central Asia who had be-
come thoroughly identified with the Rus
sian population, having adopted not only
the dress and manners of the natives of
the country, but also the language and
religion They were honest, truthful and
hospitable to strangers, and subsisted
chiefly on the products of sable-trapping
and fishing. At one time the little party
was reduced to the lowest extremity, all
their provisions had been consumed, and
they We're compelled for two days to
subsist upon q piece of blubber, origi
nally intended for the purpose of oiling
their guns. 1t length wandering tribe
of Koratz was encountered, and after
their fright mad been assuaged they placed
before the halffamished party the best
accommodations at their disposal, which
consisted of a mixture of blubber, moss
and reindeer meat, boiled to the consist
ency of a pudding, which, though not of
. nourishing tendency, sustained life.
The religion of the tribe was generally
the worship of the evil spirit, manifested
by species of sorcery. After delineat-
ing the customs of the inhabitants of
Siberia, the lecturer wildly described
the aurora borealis as witnessed in that
country. The thermometer, he said, fire.
quently indicated from fifty to sixty de-
grees below zero, but the intensity of the
cold was lessened by the heavy suits of
fur in which the natives envelop them
selves. The lecturer withdrew for a
moment and arrayed himself in fur
costume which he said he had worn dur
ing his sojourn in tine Arctic region. The
only evidences of civilization to be found
in that country were pictorial papers
He had seen in one instance portrait of
ex-Gov. Dix, cut from Harper's Weekly,
framed and hung as saint, and before
which prayers were daily said by the
Russian peasantry. The speaker closed by
relating the disappointment of the party
on learning that all their labor had been
fruitless, owing to the successful laying
of the Atlantic cable.-N. Y. Times