There is but one isba at Ouké, which, together with a dozen balagans and two yourts, form the whole ostrog. One of the yourts had been cleaned for M. Kasloff, and we passed the night in it.
We left this village at break of day, and half way on our journey we saw a certain number of balagans, which are only inhabited, I was informed, in the fishing season. Near this place we met the sea again, and travelled on the shore for some time. I was extremely mortified at not being able to see at what distance it was frozen, nor what was the direction of this part of the eastern coast of Kamtschatka. A north wind incommoded us, and impelled the snow with such violence against us, that our whole attention was engrossed by guarding our eyes from it; there was also a fog that extended from the shore to a considerable distance on the sea, and intercepted almost entirely the view of it. The inhabitants of the country, whom I interrogated upon the subject, informed me we had just passed a bay of no very considerable width, and that the sea was covered with ice as far as thirty wersts from the land.
At Khaluli, an ostrog, situated upon a river of the same name, sixty six wersts from Ouké, and at a short distance from the sea, I found but two yourts and twelve or thirteen balagans; but I had the pleasure of seeing a baidar covered with leather. This boat was about fifteen feet long and four wide; the hull was made of planks tolerably thin, and crossing each other; a longer and thicker piece of wood served as the keel; the timbers were made fast with leathern straps; and the whole was covered over with several skins of sea horses and large sea wolves.
I particularly admired the manner in which these skins were prepared, and the compactness with which they were sewn together, so that the water could not penetrate into the boat. Its shape was somewhat similar to ours, but less round, and therefore less graceful; it converged towards the extremities, so as to terminate in a point, and had a flat bottom. The lightness of the common baidars, which makes them liable to be overturned, doubtless gave rise to this mode of constructing them, by which they acquire more weight. This boat was placed under a shed built on purpose to protect it from the snow. The toyon of Khaluli having given up his yourt to us, we slept in it, being unable to proceed till the next day. The wind had increased since our arrival, and did not abate till the middle of the night.
At ten o'clock in the morning we had lost sight of Khaluli, and passed an old village of the same name, which had been lately deserted on account of its bad situation. Farther on we found some more desolated habitations, formerly the ostrog of Ivaschkin, and which had been removed, for a similar reason, thirty wersts from its former situation. We came again to the sea, and travelled for some time on the eastern coast. It forms another bay at this place, which I was desirous of examining, but was, as before, prevented by the fog. I observed that the fog cleared up in proportion as the wind veered to the north-east, which had hitherto been west and north-west.
Ivaschkin is forty wersts from Khaluli, and very near to the sea. It contains two yourts and six balagans, and is situated upon a small river of the same name, which was entirely frozen, as was also one that we had just passed.
We slept at this village, and spent a considerable part of the next day there, from the apprehension of a hurricane, which, it was said, threatened us. We were at last relieved from our fears, and though it was tolerably late when we resolved to proceed, we reached Drannki, which is thirty wersts. The situation of this ostrog is similar to the preceding one. Here we found M. Haus, a Russian officer: he came from Tiguil, and brought M. Kasloff various objects of natural history.