we could not stand two minutes in the same place.  The water flowing from these springs is collected in a small bathing pond, and afterwards forms a little rivulet, which, at the distance of about an hundred and fifty yards, falls into the river.  The bath, they told us, had wrought great cures in several disorders, such as rheumatisms, swelled and contracted joints, and scorbutic ulcers.  In the bathing place the thermometer stood at 100 deg., or blood heat; but in the spring, after being immersed two minutes, it was 1 deg. above boiling spirits.  The thermometer in the air, at this time was 34 deg.; in the river 40 deg.; and in the Toion’s house 64 deg..  The ground where these springs break out is on a gentle ascent; behind which there is a green hill of a moderate size.  I am sorry I was not sufficiently skilled in botany to examine the plants, which seemed to thrive here with great luxuriance; the wild garlic, indeed, forced itself on our notice, and was at this time springing up very vigorously.

The next morning we embarked on the Bolchoireka in canoes; and having the stream with us, expected to be at our journey’s end the day following.  The town of Bolcheretsk is about eighty miles from Natcheekin; and we were informed, that, in the summer season, when the river has been full and rapid, from the melting of snow on the mountains, the canoes had often gone down in a single day; but that, in its present state, we should probably be much longer, as the ice had broken up only three days before we arrived; and that ours would be the first boat that had attempted to pass.  This intelligence proved but too true.  We found ourselves greatly impeded by the shallows; and though the stream in many places ran with great rapidity, yet in every half mile we had ripplings and shoals, over which we had to haul the boats.[18] The country on each side was very romantic, but unvaried; the river running between mountains of the most craggy and barren aspect, where there was nothing to diversify the scene but now and then the sight of a bear, and the flights of wild fowl.  So uninteresting a passage leaves me nothing farther to say, than that this, and the following night, we slept on the banks of the river, under our marquee, and suffered very much from the severity of the weather, and the snow, which still remained on the ground.

At day-light, on the 12th, we found we had got clear of the mountains, and were entering a low extensive plain, covered with shrubby trees.  About nine in the forenoon, we arrived at an ostrog, called Opatchin, which is computed to be fifty miles from Natcheekin, and is nearly of the same size as Karatchin.  We found here a serjeant, with four Russian soldiers, who had been two days waiting for our arrival, and who immediately dispatched a light boat to Bolcheretsk, with intelligence of our approach.  We were now put into the trammels of formality; a canoe, furnished with skins and furs, and equipped in a magnificent