Petropavlovsk (Port of Saints Peter and Paul) is situated in lat. 53 deg. 1’ North, long. 158 deg. 43’ East, and is the principal place in Kamchatka.  It stands on the side of a hill sloping into the northern shore of Avatcha Bay, or rather into a little harbor opening into the bay.  Fronting this harbor is a long peninsula that hides the town from all parts of the bay except those near the sea.  The harbor is well sheltered from winds and furnishes excellent anchorage.  It is divided into an inner and an outer harbor by means of a sand spit that extends from the main land toward the peninsula, leaving an opening about three hundred yards in width.  The inner harbor is a neat little basin about a thousand yards in diameter and nearly circular in shape.

Some of the mountains that serve as landmarks to the approaching mariner, are visible from the town, and others can be seen by climbing the hills in the vicinity.  Wuluchinski is to the southward and not volcanic, while Avatcha and Korianski, to the north and east, were smoking with a dignified air, like a pair of Turks after a champagne supper.  Eruptions of these volcanoes occur every few years, and during the most violent ones ashes and stones are thrown to a considerable distance.  Captain King witnessed an eruption of Avatcha in 1779, and says that stones fell at Petropavlovsk, twenty-five miles away, and the ashes covered the deck of his ship.  Mr. Pierce, an old resident of Kamchatka, gave me a graphic description of an eruption in 1861.  It was preceded by an earthquake, which overturned crockery on the tables, and demolished several ovens.  For a week or more earthquakes of a less violent character occurred hourly.

Besides the Variag we found in port the Russian brig Poorga and the Prussian brig Danzig, the latter having an American captain, crew, hull, masts, and rigging.  Two old hulks were rotting in the mud, and an unseaworthy schooner lay on the beach with one side turned upward as if in agony.  “There be land rats and water rats,” according to Shakspeare.  Some of the latter dwelt in this bluff-bowed schooner and peered curiously from the crevices in her sides.

[Illustration:  Breach of etiquette.]

The majority of our visitors made their calls very brief.  After their departure, I went on shore with Mr. Hunter, an American resident of Petropavlovsk.  In every house I visited I was pressed to take petnatzet copla (fifteen drops,) the universal name there for something stimulating.  The drops might be American whisky, French brandy, Dutch gin, or Russian vodka.  David Crockett said a true gentleman is one who turns his back while you pour whisky into your tumbler.  The etiquette of Kamchatka does not permit the host to count the drops taken by his guest.