The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume I Part 10

Its oldest name is Hoo. In early days the following curious mode of catching fish was adopted. Rows of bamboo stakes, joined by cords, were driven into the mud of the stream, among which, at ebb tide, the fish became entangled, and were easily caught. This mode of fis.h.i.+ng was called _hoo_, and as at one time Shanghai was famous for its fis.h.i.+ng stakes, it gained the name of the "Hoo city." The tides rise very rapidly in the river, and sometimes give rise to alarming inundations. Lady Wortley's description of the waters of the Mississippi apply to the river-water of Shanghai; "it looks marvellously like an enormous running stream of apothecary's stuff, a very strong decoction of mahogany-coloured bark, with a slight dash of port wine to deepen its hue; it is a mulatto-complexioned river, there is no doubt of that, and wears the deep-tanned livery of the burnished sun." Within and without the walls, the city is cut up by ditches and moats, which, some years ago, instead of being sources of benefit and health to the inhabitants, as they were originally intended to be, were really open sewers, breathing out effluvia and pestilence. In some respects, however, Shanghai is now better ordered as regards munic.i.p.al arrangements.

The fruits of the earth are abundant at Shanghai, and "Jack ash.o.r.e" may revel in delicious peaches, figs, persimmons, cherries, plums, oranges, citrons, and pomegranates, while there is a plentiful supply of fish, flesh, and fowl. Grains of all kinds, rice, and cotton are cultivated extensively; the latter gives employment at the loom for thousands. On the other hand there are drawbacks in the shape of clouds of musquitoes, flying-beetles, heavy rains, monsoons, and earthquakes. The prognostics of the latter are a highly electric state of the atmosphere, long drought, excessive heat, and what can only be described as a stagnation of all nature. Dr. Milne, reciting his experiences, says: "At the critical moment of the commotion, the earth began to rock, the beams and walls cracked like the timbers of a s.h.i.+p under sail, and a nausea came over one, a sea-sickness really horrible. At times, for a second or two previous to the vibration, there was heard a subterraneous growl, a noise as of a mighty rus.h.i.+ng wind whirling about under ground." The natives were terror-struck, more especially if the quake happened at night, and there would burst a ma.s.s of confused sounds, "Kew ming! Kew ming!" ("Save your lives! save your lives!") Dogs added their yells to the medley, amid the striking of gongs and tomtoms. Next day there would be exhaustless gossip concerning upheaval and sinking of land, flames issuing from the hill-sides, and ashes cast about the country. The Chinese ideas on the subject are various. Some thought the earth had become too hot, and that it had to relieve itself by a shake, or that it was changing its place for another part of the universe. Others said that the Supreme One, to bring transgressors to their senses, thought to alarm them by a quivering of the earth. The notion most common among the lower cla.s.ses is, that there are six huge sea-monsters, great fish, which support the earth, and that if any one of these move, the earth must be agitated. Superst.i.tion is rife in ascribing these earth-shakings chiefly to the remissness of the priesthood. In almost every temple there is a _muh-yu_-an image of a scaly wooden fish, suspended near the altar, and among the duties of the priests, it is rigidly prescribed that they keep up an everlasting tapping on it. If they become lax in their duties, the fish wriggle and shake the earth to bring the drowsy priests to a sense of their duty.

A singular meteorological phenomenon often occurs at Shanghai-_a fall of dust_, fine, light and impalpable, sometimes black, ordinarily yellow. The sun or moon will scarcely be visible through this sand shower. The deposit of this exquisite powder is sometimes to the extent of a quarter of an inch, after a fall of a day or two; it will penetrate the closest venetian blinds; it overspreads every article of furniture in the house; finds its way into the innermost chambers and recesses. In walking about, one's clothes are covered with dust-the face gets grimy, the mouth and throat parched; the teeth grate; the eyes, ears, and nostrils become itchy and irritable. The fall sometimes extends as far as Ningpo in the interior-also some 200 miles out at sea. Some think that it is blown all the way from the steppes of Mongolia, after having been wafted by typhoons into the upper regions of the air: others think that it comes across the seas from the j.a.panese volcanoes, which are constantly subject to eruptions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VESSELS IN THE PORT OF SHANGHAI.]

The population of Shanghai, rapidly increasing, is probably about 400,000 to 450,000 souls. It swarms with professional beggars. Among the many creditable things cited by Milne regarding the Chinese, is the number of native charitable inst.i.tutions in Canton, Ningpo, and Shanghai, including Foundling Hospitals, the (Shanghai) "Asylum for Outcast Children, retreats for poor and dest.i.tute widows, shelters for the maimed and blind, medical dispensaries, leper hospitals, vaccine establishments, almshouses, free burial societies," and so forth. So much for the heartless Chinese.

The sailor certainly has this compensation for his hard life, that he sees the world, and visits strange countries and peoples by the dozen, privileges for which many a man tied at home by the inevitable force of circ.u.mstances would give up a great deal. What an oracle is he on his return, amid his own family circle or friends! How the youngsters in particular hang on his every word, look up at his bronzed and honest face, and wish that they could be sailors,-

"Strange countries for to see."

How many curiosities has he not to show-from the inevitable parrot, chattering in a foreign tongue, or swearing roundly in English vernacular, to the little ugly idol brought from India, but possibly manufactured in Birmingham!(92) If from China, he will probably have brought home some curious caddy, fearfully and wonderfully inlaid with dragons and impossible landscapes; an ivory paG.o.da, or, perhaps, one of those wonderfully-carved b.a.l.l.s, with twenty or so more inside it, all separate and distinct, each succeeding one getting smaller and smaller. He may have with him a native oil-painting; if a portrait, stolid and hard; but if of a s.h.i.+p, true to the last rope, and exact in every particular. In San Francisco, where there are 14,000 or more Chinese, may be seen native paintings of vessels which could hardly be excelled by a European artist, and the cost of which for large sizes, say 3 by 2 feet, was only about fifteen dollars (3). What with fans, handkerchiefs, Chinese ladies' shoes for feet about three inches in length, lanterns, chopsticks, pipes, rice-paper drawings, books, neat and quaint little porcelain articles for presents at home, it will be odd if Jack, who has been mindful of the "old folks at home," and the young folks too, and the "girl he left behind him," does not become a very popular man.

And then his yarns of Chinese life! How on his first landing at a port, the natives in proffering their services hastened to a.s.sure him in "pigeon English" ("pigeon" is a native corruption of "business," as a mixed jargon had and has to be used in trading with the lower cla.s.ses) that "Me all same Englische man; me belly good man;" or "You wantee washy? me washy you?" which is simply an offer to do your laundry work;(93) or "You wantee glub (grub); me sabee (know) one shop all same Englische belly good." Or, perhaps, he has met a Chinaman accompanying a coffin home, and yet looking quite happy and jovial. Not knowing that it is a common custom to present coffins to relatives during lifetime, he inquires, "Who's dead, John?" "No man hab die," replies the Celestial, "no man hab die. Me makee my olo fader c.u.msha. Him likee too muchee, countoo my number one popa, s'pose he die, can catchee," which freely translated is-"No one is dead. It is a present from me to my aged father, with which he will be much pleased. I esteem my father greatly, and it will be at his service when he dies." How one of the common names for a foreigner, especially an Englishman, is "I say," which derived its use simply from the Chinese hearing our sailors and soldiers frequently e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e the words when conversing, as for example, "I say, Bill, there's a queer-looking pigtail!" The Chinese took it for a generic name, and would use it among themselves in the most curious way, as for example, "A red-coated _I say_ sent me to buy a fowl;"

or "Did you see a tall _I say_ here a while ago?" The application is, however, not more curious than the t.i.tle of "John" bestowed on the Chinaman by most foreigners as a generic distinction. Less flattering epithets used to be freely bestowed on us, especially in the interior, such as "foreign devil," "red-haired devil," &c. The phrase Hungmaou, "red-haired," is applied to foreigners of all cla.s.ses, and arose when the Dutch first opened up trade with China. A Chinese work, alluding to their arrival, says, "Their raiment was red, and their hair too. They had bluish eyes, deeply sunken in their head, and our people were quite frightened by their strange aspect."

Jack will have to tell how many strange anomalies met his gaze. For example, in launching their junks and vessels, they are sent into the water _sideways_. The horseman mounts on the _right_ side. The scholar, reciting his lesson, _turns his back_ on his master. And if Jack, or, at all events one of his superior officers, goes to a party, he should not wear light pumps, but as thick solid shoes as he can get; _white lead_ is used for _blacking_. On visits of ceremony, you should keep your hat _on_; and when you advance to your host, you should close your fists and _shake hands with yourself_. Dinners commence with sweets and fruits, and _end_ with fish and soup. White is the funereal colour. You may see adults gravely flying kites, while the youngsters look on; shuttlec.o.c.ks are battledored by the _heel_. Books begin at the end; the paging is at the bottom, and in reading, you proceed from right to left. The surname precedes the Christian name. The fond mother holds her babe to her nose to smell it-as she would a rose-instead of kissing it.

What yarns he will have to tell of pigtails! How the Chinese sailor lashes it round his cap at sea; how the crusty pedagogue, with no other rod of correction, will, on the spur of the moment, lash the refractory scholar with it; and how, for fun, a wag will tie two or three of his companions'

tails together, and start them off in different directions! But he will also know from his own or others' experiences that the foreigner must not attempt practical jokes upon John Chinaman's tail. "_Noli me tangere_,"

says Dr. Milne, "is the order of the tail, as well as of the thistle."

Now that most of the restrictions surrounding foreigners in j.a.pan have been removed, and that enlightened people-the Englishmen of the Pacific in enterprise and progress-have taken their proper place among the nations of the earth, visits to j.a.pan are commonly made by even ordinary tourists making the circuit of the globe, and we shall have to touch there again in another "voyage round the world" shortly to follow. The English sailors of the Royal Navy often have an opportunity of visiting the charming islands which const.i.tute j.a.pan. Its English name is a corruption of _Tih-punquo_-Chinese for "Kingdom of the Source of the Sun." Marco Polo was the first to bring to Europe intelligence of the bright isles, whose j.a.panese name, Nipon or Niphon, means literally "Sun-source."

On the way to Yokohama, the great port of j.a.pan, the voyager will encounter the monsoons, the north-east version of which brings deliciously cool air from October to March, while the south-west monsoon brings hot and weary weather. On the way Nagasaki, on the island of Kiusiu, will almost certainly be visited, which has a harbour with a very narrow entrance, with hills running down to the water's edge, beautifully covered with luxuriant gra.s.s and low trees. The j.a.panese have planted batteries on either side, which would probably prevent any vessel short of a strong ironclad from getting in or out of the harbour. The city has a population at least of 150,000. There are a number of Chinese restricted to one quarter, surrounded by a high wall, in which is a heavy gate, that is securely locked every night. Their dwellings are usually mean and filthy, and compare very unfavourably with the neat, clean, matted dwellings of the j.a.panese. The latter despise the former; indeed, you can scarcely insult a native more than to compare him with his brother of Nankin. The j.a.panese term them the Nankin Sans.

The island of Niphon, on which Yokohama is situated, is about one hundred and seventy miles long by seventy broad, while Yesso is somewhat longer and narrower. j.a.pan really became known to Europe through Fernando Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese who was s.h.i.+pwrecked there in 1549. Seven years later the famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, introduced the Catholic faith, which for a long time made great progress. But a fatal mistake was made in 1580, when an emba.s.sy was sent to the Pope with presents and vows of allegiance.

The reigning Tyc.o.o.n(94) had his eyes opened by this act, and saw that to profess obedience to any spiritual lord was to weaken his own power immeasurably. The priests of the old religions, too, complained bitterly of the loss of their flocks, and the Tyc.o.o.n determined to crush out the Christian faith. Thousands upon thousands of converts were put to death, and the very last of them are said to have been hurled from the rock of Papenberg, at Nagasaki, into the sea. In 1600, William Adams, an English sailor on a Dutch s.h.i.+p, arrived in the harbour of Bungo, and speedily became a favourite with the Tyc.o.o.n, who, through him, gave the English permission to establish a trading "factory" on the island of Firando. This was later on abandoned, but the Dutch East India Company continued the trade on the same island, under very severe restrictions. The fire-arms and powder on their s.h.i.+ps were taken from them immediately on arrival, and only returned when the s.h.i.+ps were ready for sea again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: YOKOHAMA.]

Yokohama, the princ.i.p.al port, stands on a flat piece of ground, at the wide end of a valley, which runs narrowing up for several miles in the country. The site was reclaimed from a mere swamp by the energy of the Government; and there is now a fine sea-wall facing the sea, with two piers running out into it, on each of which there is a custom-house. The average j.a.panese in the streets is clothed in a long thin cotton robe, open in front and gathered at the waist by a cloth girdle. This const.i.tutes the whole of his dress, save a scanty cloth tied tightly round the loins, cotton socks and wooden clogs. The elder women look hideous, but some of their ugliness is self-inflicted, as it is the fas.h.i.+on, when a woman becomes a wife, to draw out the hair of her eyebrows and varnish her teeth black! Their teeth are white, and they still have their eyebrows, but are too much p.r.o.ne to the use of chalk and vermilion on their cheeks.

Every one is familiar with the j.a.panese stature-under the general average-for there are now a large number of the natives resident in London.

Jack will soon find out that the j.a.panese _cuisine_ is most varied. Tea and sacki, or rice beer, are the only liquors used, except, of course, by travelled, Europeanised, or Americanised j.a.panese. They sit on the floor, squatting on their heels in a manner which tires Europeans very rapidly, although they look as comfortable as possible. The floor serves them for chair, table, bed, and writing-desk. At meals there is a small stand, about nine inches high, by seven inches square, placed before each individual, and on this is deposited a small bowl, and a variety of little dishes. Chopsticks are used to convey the food to their mouths. Their most common dishes are fish boiled with onions, and a kind of small bean, dressed with oil; fowls stewed and cooked in all ways; boiled rice. Oil, mushrooms, carrots, and various bulbous roots, are greatly used in making up their dishes. In the way of a bed in summer, they merely lie down on the mats, and put a _wooden_ pillow under their heads; but in winter indulge in warm quilts, and have bra.s.s pans of charcoal at the feet. They are very cleanly, baths being used constantly, and the public bath-houses being open to the street. Strangely enough, however, although so particular in bodily cleanliness, they never wash their clothes, but wear them till they almost drop to pieces. A gentleman who arrived there in 1859, had to send his clothes to Shanghai to be washed-a journey of 1,600 miles! Since the great influx of foreigners, however, plenty of Niphons have turned laundrymen.

Their tea-gardens, like those of the Chinese, are often large and extremely ornamental, and at them one obtains a cup of genuine tea made before your eyes for one-third of a halfpenny.(95)

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FUSIYAMA MOUNTAIN.]

The great attraction, in a landscape point of view, outside Yokohama, is the grand Fusiyama Mountain, an extinct volcano, the great object of reverence and pride in the j.a.panese heart, and which in native drawings and carvings is incessantly represented. A giant, 14,000 feet high, it towers grandly to the clouds, snow-capped and streaked. It is deemed a holy and worthy deed to climb to its summit, and to pray in the numerous temples that adorn its sides. Thousands of pilgrims visit it annually. And now let us make a northward voyage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TEA MART IN j.a.pAN.]

CHAPTER IX.

ROUND THE WORLD ON A MAN-OF-WAR (_continued_).

NORTHWARD AND SOUTHWARD-THE AUSTRALIAN STATION.

The Port of Peter and Paul-Wonderful Colouring of Kamchatka Hills-Grand Volcanoes-The Fight at Petropaulovski-A Contrast-An International Pic-nic-A Double Wedding-Bering's Voyages-Kamchatka worthy of Further Exploration-Plover Bay-Tchuktchi Natives-Whaling-A Terrible Gale-A Novel "Smoke-stack"-Southward again-The Liverpool of the East-Singapore, a Paradise-New Harbour-Wharves and s.h.i.+pping-Cruelties of the Coolie Trade-Junks and Prahus-The Kling-gharry Drivers-The Durian and its Devotees-Australia-Its Discovery-Botany Bay and the Convicts-The First Gold-Port Jackson-Beauty of Sydney-Port Philip and Melbourne.

Many English men-of-war have visited the interesting peninsula of Kamchatka, all included in the China station. How well the writer remembers the first time he visited Petropaulovski, the port of Peter and Paul! Entering first one of the n.o.blest bays in the whole world-glorious Avatcha Bay-and steaming a short distance, the entrance to a capital harbour disclosed itself. In half an hour the vessel was inside a landlocked harbour, with a sand-spit protecting it from all fear of gales or sudden squalls. Behind was a highly-coloured little town, red roofs, yellow walls, and a church with burnished turrets. The hills around were autumnly frost-coloured; but not all the ideas the expression will convey to an artist could conjure up the reality. Indian yellow merging through tints of gamboge, yellow, and brown ochre to sombre brown; madder lake, brown madder, Indian red to Roman sepia; greys, bright and dull greens indefinable, and utterly indescribable, formed a _melange_ of colour which defied description whether by brush or pen. It was delightful; but it was puzzling. King Frost had completed at night that which autumn had done by day. Then behind rose the grand mountain of Koriatski, one of a series of great volcanoes. It seemed a few miles off; it was, although the wonderful clearness of the atmosphere belied the fact, some thirty miles distant. An impregnable fortress of rock, streaked and capped with snow, it defies time and man. Its smoke was constantly observed; its pure snows only hid the boiling, bubbling lava beneath.

With the exception of a few decent houses, the residences of the civil governor, captain of the port, and other officials, and a few foreign merchants, the town makes no great show. The poorer dwellings are very rough, and, indeed, are almost exclusively log cabins. A very picturesque and noticeable building is the old Greek church, which has painted red and green roofs, and a belfry full of bells, large and small, detached from the building, and only a foot or two raised above the ground. It is to be noted that the town, as it existed in Captain Clerke's time, was built on the sand-spit. It was once a military post, but the Cossack soldiers have been removed to the Amoor.

There are two monuments of interest in Petropaulovski; one in honour of Bering, the second to the memory of La Perouse. The former is a plain cast-iron column, railed in, while the latter is a most nondescript construction of sheet iron, and is of octagonal form. Neither of these navigators is buried in the town. Poor Bering's remains lie on the island where he miserably perished, and which now bears his name; while of the fate of La Perouse, and his unfortunate companions, little is known.

In 1855, Petropaulovski was visited by the allied fleets, during the period of our war with Russia. They found an empty town, for the Russian Government had given up all idea of defending it. The combined fleet captured one miserable whaler, razed the batteries, and destroyed some of the government buildings. There were good and sufficient reasons why they should have done nothing. The poor little town of Saints Peter and Paul was beneath notice, as victory there could never be glorious. But a stronger reason existed in the fact, recorded in a dozen voyages, that from the days of Cook and Clerke to our own, it had always been famous for the unlimited hospitality and a.s.sistance shown to explorers and voyagers, without regard to nationality. All is _not_ fair in war. Possibly, however, reason might be found for the havoc done, in the events of the previous year.

In August, 1854, the inhabitants of Petropaulovski had covered themselves with glory, much to their own surprise. On the 28th of the month, six English and French vessels-the _President_, _Virago_, _Pique_, _La Fort_, _l'Eurydice_, and _l'Obligado_-entered Avatcha Bay. Admiral Price reconnoitred the harbour and town, and placed the _Virago_ in position at 2,000 yards. The Russians had two vessels, the _Aurora_ and _Dwina_, to defend the harbour, and a strong chain was placed across its narrow entrance. The town was defended by seven batteries and earthworks, mounting fifty guns.

It was not difficult to silence the batteries, and they were accordingly silenced. The townspeople, with their limited knowledge of the English-those English they had always so hospitably received, and who were now doing their best to kill them-thought their hour was come, and that, if not immediately executed, they would have to languish exiles in a foreign land, far from their beautiful Kamchatka. The town was, and is, defended almost as much by nature as by art. High hills shut it in so completely, and the harbour entrance can be so easily defended, that there is really only one vulnerable point, in its rear, where a small valley opens out into a plot of land bordering the bay. Here it was thought desirable to land a body of men.

Accordingly, 700 marines and sailors were put ash.o.r.e. The men looked forward to an easy victory, and hurriedly, in detached and straggling style, pressed forward to secure it. Alas! they had reckoned without their host-they were rus.h.i.+ng heedlessly into the jaws of death. A number of bushes and small trees existed, and still exist, on the hill-sides surrounding this spot, and behind them were posted Cossack sharp-shooters, who fired into our men, and, either from skill or accident, picked off nearly every officer. The men, not seeing their enemy, and having lost their leaders, became panic-struck, and fell back in disorder. A retreat was sounded, but the men struggling in the bushes and underbrush (and, in truth, most of them being sailors, were out of their element on land) became much scattered, and it was generally believed that many were killed by the random shots of their companions. A number fled up a hill at the rear of the town; their foes pursued and pressed upon them, and many were killed by falling over the steep cliff in which the hill terminates.

The inhabitants, astonished at their own prowess, and knowing that they could not hold the town against a more vigorous attack, were preparing to vacate it, when the fleet weighed anchor and set sail, and no more was seen of them that year! The sudden death of our admiral is always attributed to the events of that attack, as he was known not to have been killed by a ball from the enemy.(96)

The writer has walked over the main battle-field, and saw cannon-b.a.l.l.s unearthed when some men were digging gravel, which had laid there since the events of 1854. The last time he pa.s.sed over it, in 1866, was when proceeding with some Russian and American friends to what might be termed an "international" pic-nic, for there were present European and Asiatic Russians, full and half-breed natives, Americans, including genuine "Yankee" New Englanders, New Yorkers, Southerners, and Californians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and one Italian. Chatting in a babel of tongues, the party climbed a path on the hill-side, leading to a beautiful gra.s.sy opening, overlooking the glorious bay below, which extended in all directions a dozen or fifteen miles, and on one side farther than the eye could reach. Several grand snow-covered volcanoes towered above, thirty to fifty miles off; one, of most beautiful outline, that of Vilutchinski, was on the opposite sh.o.r.e of Avatcha Bay.

The sky was bright and blue, and the water without a ripple; wild flowers were abundant, the air was fragrant with them, and, but for the mosquitoes (which are _not_ confined to hot countries, but flourish in the short summer of semi-Arctic climes), it might have been considered an earthly edition of paradise! But even these pests could not worry the company much, for not merely were nearly all the men smokers, but most of the ladies also! Here the writer may remark, parenthetically, that many of the Russian ladies smoke cigarettes, and none object to gentlemen smoking at table or elsewhere. At the many dinners and suppers offered by the hospitable residents, it was customary to draw a few whiffs between the courses; and when the cloth was removed, the ladies, instead of retiring to another room, sat in company with the gentlemen, the larger proportion joining in the social weed. After the enjoyment of a liberal _al fresco_ dinner, songs were in order, and it would be easier to say what were not sung than to give the list of those, in all languages, which were. Then after the songs came some games, one of them a Russian version of "hunt the slipper," and another _very_ like "kiss in the ring." The writer particularly remembers the latter, for he had on that occasion the honour of kissing the Pope's wife! This needs explanation, although the Pope was his friend. In the Greek Church the priest is "allowed to marry," and his t.i.tle, in the Russian language, is "Pope."

And the recollection of that particular "Pope" recalls a well-remembered ceremony-that of a _double_ wedding in the old church. During the ceremony it is customary to crown the bride and bridegroom. In this case two considerate male friends held the crowns for three-quarters of an hour over the brides' heads, so as not to spoil the artistic arrangement of their hair and head-gear. It seems also to be the custom, when, as in the present case, the couples were in the humbler walks of life, to ask some wealthy individual to act as master of the ceremonies, who, if he accepts, has to stand all the expenses. In this case M. Phillipeus, a merchant who has many times crossed the frozen steppes of Siberia in search of valuable furs, was the victim, and he accepted the responsibility of entertaining all Petropaulovski, the officers of the splendid Russian corvette, the _Variag_, and those of the Telegraph Expedition, with cheerfulness and alacrity.

The coast-line of Kamchatka is extremely grand, and far behind it are magnificent volcanic peaks. The promontory which terminates in the two capes, Kamchatka and s...o...b..voy, has the appearance of two islands detached from the mainland, the intervening country being low. This, a circ.u.mstance to be constantly observed on all coasts, was, perhaps, specially noticeable on this. The island of St. Lawrence, in Bering Sea, was a very prominent example. It is undeniable that the apparent gradual rise of a coast, seen from the sea as you approach it, affords a far better proof of the rotundity of the earth than the ill.u.s.trations usually employed, that of a s.h.i.+p, which you are supposed to see by instalments, from the main-royal sail (if not from the "sky-sc.r.a.per" or "moon-raker") to the hull. The fact is, that the royal and top-gallant sails of a vessel on the utmost verge of the horizon may be, in certain lights, barely distinguishable, while the dark outline of an irregular and rock-bound coast can be seen by any one. First, maybe, appears a mountain peak towering in solitary grandeur above the coast-line, and often far behind it, then the high lands and hills, then the cliffs and low lands, and, lastly, the flats and beaches.

It was from the Kamchatka River, which enters Bering Sea near the cape of the same name, that Vitus Bering sailed on his first voyage. That navigator was a persevering and plucky Dane, who had been drawn into the service of Russia through the fame of Peter the Great, and his first expedition was directly planned by that sagacious monarch, although he did not live to carry it out. Muller, the historian of Bering's career, says: "The Empress Catherine, as she endeavoured in all points to execute most precisely the plans of her deceased husband, in a manner began her reign with an order for the expedition to Kamchatka." Bering had a.s.sociated with him two active subordinates, Spanberg and Tschirikoff. They left St.

Petersburg on February 5th, 1725, proceeding to the Ochotsk Sea, _via_ Siberia. It is a tolerable proof of the difficulties of travel in those days, that it took them _two years_ to transport their outfit thither.

They crossed to Kamchatka, where, on the 4th of April, 1728, Muller tells us, "a boat was put upon the stocks, like the packet-boats used in the Baltic, and on the 10th of July was launched, and named the boat _Gabriel_." A few days later, and she was creeping along the coast of Kamchatka and Eastern Siberia. Bering on this first voyage discovered St.

Lawrence Island, and reached as far north as 67 18', where, finding the land trend to the westward, he came to the conclusion that he had reached the eastern extremity of Asia, and that Asia and America were distinct continents. On the first point he was not, as a matter of detail, quite correct; but the second, the important object of his mission, settled for ever the vexed question.

A second voyage was rather unsuccessful. His third expedition left Petropaulovski on the 4th of July, 1741. His little fleet became dispersed in a storm, and Bering pursued his discoveries alone. These were not unimportant, for he reached the grand chain of the rock-girt Aleutian Islands, and others nearer the mainland of America. At length the scurvy broke out in virulent form among his crew, and he attempted to return to Kamchatka. The sickness increased so much that the "two sailors who used to be at the rudder were obliged to be led in by two others who could hardly walk, and when one could sit and steer no longer, one in little better condition supplied his place. Many sails they durst not hoist, because there was n.o.body to lower them in case of need." At length land appeared, and they cast anchor. A storm arose, and the s.h.i.+p was driven on the rocks; they cast their second anchor, and the cable snapped before it took ground. A great sea pitched the vessel bodily over the rocks, behind which they happily found quieter water. The island was barren, devoid of trees, and with little driftwood. They had to roof over gulches or ravines, to form places of refuge. On the "8th of November a beginning was made to land the sick; but some died as soon as they were brought from between decks in the open air, others during the time they were on the deck, some in the boat, and many more as soon as they were brought on sh.o.r.e." On the following day the commander, Bering, himself prostrated with disease, was brought ash.o.r.e, and moved about on a hand-barrow. He died a month after, in one of the little ravines, or ditches, which had been covered with a roof, and when he expired was almost covered with the sand which fell from its sides, and which he desired his men not to remove, as it gave him some little warmth. Before his remains could be finally interred they had literally to be disinterred.

The vessel, unguarded, was utterly wrecked, and their provisions lost.

They subsisted mainly that fearful winter on the carcases of dead whales, which were driven ash.o.r.e. In the spring the pitiful remnant of a once hardy crew managed to construct a small vessel from the wreck of their old s.h.i.+p, and at length succeeded in reaching Kamchatka. They then learned that Tschirikoff, Bering's a.s.sociate, had preceded them, but with the loss of thirty-one of his crew from the same fell disease which had so reduced their numbers. Bering's name has ever since been attached to the island where he died.

There is no doubt that Kamchatka would repay a detailed exploration, which it has never yet received. It is a partially settled country. The Kamchatdales are a good-humoured, harmless, and semi-civilised race, and the Russian officials and settlers at the few little towns would gladly welcome the traveller. The dogs used for sledging in winter are n.o.ble animals, infinitely stronger than those of Alaska or even Greenland. The attractions for the Alpine climber cannot be overstated. The peninsula contains a chain of volcanic peaks, attaining, it is stated, in the Klutchevskoi Mountain a height of 16,000 feet. In the country immediately behind Petropaulovski are the three peaks, Koriatski, Avatcha, and Koseldskai; the first is about 12,000 feet in height, and is a conspicuous landmark for the port. A comparatively level country, covered with rank gra.s.s and underbrush, and intersected by streams, stretches very nearly to their base.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PETROPAULOVSKI AND THE AVATCHA MOUNTAIN.]