The most common fish in Kamtschatka are trouts, and salmon of different species; sea wolves are also eaten; the fat of this fish is very wholesome, and serves them beside for lamp oil.
Among the vegetables which are made use of by the Kamtschadales, the principal are sarana root, wild garlic, slatkaïa-trava, or sweet herb, and other plants and fruits nearly similar to what are found in Russia.
The sarana is known to botanists[37]. Its shape, its size, and its colour have been described at large in the third voyage of captain Cook. Its farinaceous root serves instead of bread[38]. It is dried before it is used; but it is wholesome and nourishing in whatever mode it may be prepared.
From the wild garlic[39] they make a harsh and fermented beverage, which has a very unpleasant taste; it is also used in various sauces; the Kamtschadales are very fond of it.
The slatkaïa-trava, or sweet herb, is pleasant enough when it is fresh. This plant[40] has also been minutely described by the English. It is highly esteemed by the natives, particularly the spirit distilled from it. Soon after it is gathered, they slit it in two, and scrape out the pith with a muscle-shell: they then dry it for winter, and when they use it in their ragouts, it is previously boiled. Brandy is also distilled from this sweet herb, which, as I observed before, is sold on account of government: for this purpose the plant is purchased of the Kamtschadales[41].
There are three sorts of inhabitants, the natives or Kamtschadales, the Russians and Cossacs, and the descendants from intermarriages.
The indigenes, that is, those whose blood is unmixed, are few in number; the small pox has carried off three fourths of them, and the few that are left are dispersed through the different ostrogs of the peninsula; in Bolcheretsk it would be difficult to find more than one or two.