Excerpt from A Pedestrian Journey Through Russia and Siberian Tartary, to the Frontiers of China, the Frozen Sea, and Kamtchatka, Vol. 2 of 2 I could not fail of being a welcome guest at such a place, where neither tobacco, tea, nor spirits, had been tasted for the last three months by any indi vidual. Of course, I left a small quantity of each article with my friends, making them, as it were, roll in luxuries, in return for which I received several sables and foxes as presents. The state of the river was such as to prevent my proceeding upon my journey in less than two days, which pe riod I passed very happily, wandering over the ex tensive site of this ancient place; it is said to have formerly contained to the number of five hundred inhabitants, which have been reduced, partly by the removal of the seat of government, and partly by disease. Ineligible as it is for a seat of govern ment, I considered it as superior to St Peter and St Paul's here there is unlimited pasture and an abundance of wood; there, neither the one nor the other. The advantage of the harbour of St Peter and St Paul's is, no doubt, a great thing; but the river Bolshaya is by no means inappropriate for the small transports from Okotsk; to say nothing of the greater number and more safe voyages which could be made, compared with those actually per formed to the present capital. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.