My first acquaintance with caviar was at Nicolayevsk, and I soon learned to like it.  It is generally eaten with bread, and forms an important ingredient in the Russian lunch.  On the Volga its preparation engages a great many men, and the caviar from that river is found through the whole empire.  Along the Amoor the business is in its infancy, the production thus far being for local consumption.  I think if some enterprising American would establish the preparation of caviar on the Hudson where the sturgeon is abundant, he could make a handsome profit in shipping it to Russia.

The roe is taken from the fish and carefully washed.  The membrane that holds the eggs together is then broken, and after a second washing the substance is ready for salting.  One kind for long carriage and preservation is partially dried and then packed and sealed in tin cans.  The other is put in kegs, without pressing, and cannot be kept a long time.

In the autumn and winter the natives are hunters.  They chase elk and deer for their flesh, and sables, martens, and squirrels for their furs.  Squirrels are especially abundant, and a good hunter will frequently kill a thousand in a single season.  The Siberian squirrel of commerce comes from this region by way of Irkutsk and St. Petersburg.  The natives hunt the bear and are occasionally hunted by him.

At one landing a Birar exhibited an elk skin which he wished to exchange for tobacco, and was quite delighted when I gave him a small quantity of the latter.  He showed me a scar on his arm where a bear had bitten him two or three years before.  The marks of the teeth and the places where the flesh was torn could be easily seen, but I was unable to learn the particulars of his adventure.

These Tungusians are rather small in stature, and their arms and legs are thin.  Their features are broad, their mouths large and lips narrow, and their hair is black and smooth, the men having very little beard.  Their clothing is of the skins of elk and deer, with some garments of cotton cloth of Chinese manufacture.  Most of the men I saw wore a belt at the waist, to which several articles of daily use were attached.

At each Russian settlement above the mountains I observed a large post painted in the official colors and supporting a board inscribed with the name of the village.  It was fixed close to the landing place, and evidently designed for the convenience of strangers.  One of my exercises in learning the language of the country was to spell the names on these signs.  I found I could usually spell much faster if I knew beforehand the name of a village.  It was like having a Bohn’s translation of a Latin exercise.

At the village of Inyakentief I saw the first modern fortification since leaving Nicolayevsk,—­a simple lunette without cannon but with several hundred cannon shot somewhat rusty with age.  The governor of this village was a prince by title, and evidently controlled his subjects very well.  I saw Madame the princess, but did not have the pleasure of her acquaintance.  She was dressed in a costume of which crinoline, silk, and ribbons were component parts, contrasting sharply with the coarse garments of the peasant women.