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country, the extreme sparseness of the population and the inveterate laziness and improvidence of the inhabitants. This renders my task extremely difficult and although I expect to hire labor at Takontsk we cannot avoid much trouble until people become somewhat accustomed and fairly started. I can speak by experience now and could mention some instances of their almost incredible improvidence had I not been afraid of rendering my report too voluminous.

Everything has to be prepared, thought of, foreseen and organized in this country, so entirely deprived of resources, and so terribly distant from the civilized regions of the world.

Two days after Kennan's departure for Anadrysk I left Shijiga in the opposite direction. In my previous letter I gave you an idea of the topography of the country, you will permit me now to enter into some details.

In winter the intercourse between Shijiga and Okhotsk is very limited. The yearly mail and a dozen of sleighs with goods for some trader, are the only passengers over this distance. You may easily imagine that there can be no regular road, travellers follow no track but go in certain directions, gained by the environing mountains, streams, woods &e. Snowstorms or a foggy atmosphere conceal the signs by which the traveller is accustomed to find his way, and