HUTS IN KAMTSCHATKA.
Side by side with the finished structures of animal instinct exhibited in the engraving of the ant hills above, we next give a picture of the rude huts of the uncivilized inhabitants of Kamtschatka, in their cold northern home, at the north-eastern extremity of Asia, which is one of the coldest spots on the face of the earth. It is impossible, in so severe a climate, to raise wheat, corn, or the common productions of warmer regions. The people, however, have a compensation for the scantiness of vegetable productions in the profusion of animal life which seems to fill alike the earth, the air and the water. The coasts swarm with seals and other marine animals; the rocks are covered with shell-fish; the bays abound in herrings, and the rivers with salmon and other most valuable fish. Flocks of grouse, wild geese and ducks, often darken the air. The country abounds in bears, which are fat, and greatly esteemed by the inhabitants as food. From all these sources, the people are supplied with the greatest abundance; and, as a consequence, they have sunk into a lazy and almost stupid sensuality. They are a short and copper-colored race, somewhat like the Esquimaux. Like them, they have dogs, which they use in sledges, as seen in the engraving. Their winter houses are half sunk in the earth, while those for summer are elevated on poles above it.
TAKING A WHALE.