The floating ice which accumulates in the northern parts of the Sea of Okhotsk and the cold current which flows along the east coast of the peninsula render its summers chilly, but the winter is relatively warm, and temperatures below -40° F. are experienced only in the highlands of the interior and on the Okhotsk littoral. The average temperatures at Petropavlovsk (53° N.) are: year 37° F., January 17°, July 58°; while in the valley of the Kamchatka the average temperature of the winter is 16°, and of the summer as high as 58° and 64°. Rain and snow are copious, and dense fogs enshroud the coast in summer; consequently the mountains are well clothed with timber and the meadows with grass, except in the _tundras_ of the north. The natives eat extensively the bulbs of the Martagon lily, and weave cloth out of the fibres of the Kamchatka nettle. _Delphinopterus leucus_, the sea-lion (_Otaria Stelleri_), and walrus abound off the coasts. The sea-otter (_Enhydris marina_) has been destroyed.
The population (5846 in 1870) was 7270 in 1900. The southern part of the peninsula is occupied by Kamchadales, who exhibit many attributes of the Mongolian race, but are more similar to the aborigines of N.E. Asia and N.W. America. Fishing (quantities of salmon enter the rivers) and hunting are their chief occupations. Dog-sledges are principally used as means of communication. The efforts of the government to introduce cattle-breeding have failed. The Kamchadale language cannot be assigned to any known group; its vocabulary is extremely poor. The purity of the tongue is best preserved by the people of the Penzhinsk district on the W. coast. North of 57° N. the peninsula is peopled with Koryaks, settled and nomad, and Lamuts (Tunguses), who came from the W. coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The principal Russian settlements are: Petropavlovsk, on the E. coast, on Avacha Bay, with an excellent roadstead; Verkhne-Kamchatsk and Nizhne-Kamchatsk in the valley of the Kamchatka river; Bolsheryetsk, on the Bolshaya; and Tighil, on the W. coast.
The Russians made their first settlements in Kamchatka in the end of the 17th century; in 1696 Atlasov founded Verkhne-Kamchatsk, and in 1704 Robelev founded Bolsheryetsk. In 1720 a survey of the peninsula was undertaken; in 1725-1730 it was visited by Bering's expedition; and in 1733-1745 it was the scene of the labours of the Krasheninnikov and Steller expedition.