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A fascinating and detailed account of a huge area virtually unknown to the western world, published in English in 1764.
List of contents
Advertisement; The Russian editor's preface; Part I: 1. Of Kamtschatka; 2. Of the roads in Kamtschatka; 3. Of the Kurilski islands; 4. Of America; Part II: 1. Of the soil; 2. Of the volcano's or burning mountains; 3. Of the hot springs; 4. Of the metals and minerals; 5. Of trees and plants; 6. Of land animals; 7. Of the Vitimsky sables, and the method of hunting them; 8. Of the sea beasts; 9. Of fishes; 10. Of the birds; 11. Of insects; 12. Of the tides in the Penschinska Sea and eastern ocean; Part III: 1. Of the natives of Kamtschatka in general; 2. Some conjectures concerning the names of the Kamtschadales; 3. Of the ancient state of the natives of Kamtschatka; 4. Of the ostrogs, or habitations, of the Kamtschadales; 5. Of their household furniture, and other necessary utensils; 6. Of the labour appropriated to the different sexes; 7. Of their dress; 8. Of their diet and liquors, together with their method of cooking; 9. The method of travelling with dogs; 10. Of the Kamtschadales' method of making war; 11. The opinions of the Kamtschadales concerning God, the formation of the world, and other articles of religion; 12. Of their shamans, or conjurors; 13. Of their ceremonies; 14. Of their feasts and diversions; 15. Of their friendship, and hospitality; 16. Of their courtship, marriages, etc.; 17. Of the birth of their children; 18. Of their diseases and remedies; 19. Of the burial of the dead; 20. Omitted; 21. Of the nation of the Koreki; 22. Account of the nation of the Kuriles; Part IV: 1. Of the first discoveries made of Kamtschatka, and the planting of Russian colonies there; 2. Of the mutiny of the Cossacks, and their discovery of the islands lying between Kamtschatka and Japan; 3. Of the commissaries who succeeded Vasili Kolesof; 4. Of the rebellion of Kamtschatka; 5. The present state of the forts and villages of Kamtschatka; 6. Of the manner in which the Cossacks live there; 7. Of their trade; 8. Of the different roads between Jakutski and Kamtschatka; Index.
Summary
In 1755, naturalist Stepan Krasheninnikov published this account of an expedition to Kamchatka in 1733–43 to extend scientific and geographical knowledge of eastern lands. Published in English translation in 1764, the work is a fascinating and detailed account of a huge area virtually unknown to the western world.
