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10

destroying a great number of them. It is difficult to buy dogs, even at very high prices. I have been Kamtchadals refuse 200 roubles offered for a team of ten dogs.

Meanwhile I had some very interesting interviews with Koriak and Tshukshi Chiefs. It was the period of their yearly immigration to the southward. In October they begin to move towards Tigil and hunt sable on the Kamtchatka mountains. In January there is a general gathering of them round Tigil where they exchange the produce of their hunting for tobacco, tea, sugar, Rifles, and Copperware. Tshukshis, in little number, have begun to appear since last year. Once in Kamtchatka they have to become Russian subjects and to pay the "Tessah" taxes on the same principle as all other wandering tribes under Russian dominion. The bad weather detained them in the neighborhood of Lessnoi and hearing of our arrival, many of them came to see me. Some pounds of Circassian tobacco, and several tumblers of tea made us good friends. They advised us should we leave Lessnoi very soon, not to follow the seacoast where the mouths of rivers never freeze before end of November, but to  incline to the eastward after  we would reach Bodkagnemaga. I followed willingly their advice not being sorry to become acquainted with the country north east of Kamtchatka, so little

Transcription Notes:
Finally found "Lessnoi" in google books on a page of Tent Life in Siberia, written by Kennan (of this expedition). It appears to no longer exist.