[Footnote 118: Some of these rivers are only navigable in spring when the snow water is melting; in winter the rivers are in general frozen.]
[Sidenote: Transport of the Furs from Kamtchatka to Kiachta.] Before the passage from Ochotsk to Bolcheresk was discovered in 1716, the only communication between Kamtchatka and Siberia was by land; the road lay by Anadirsk to Yakutsk. The furs[119] of Kamtchatka and of the Eastern isles are now conveyed from that peninsula by water to Ochotsk; from thence to Yakutsk by land on horse-back, or by rein-deer: the roads are so very bad, lying either through a rugged mountainous country, or through marshy forests, that the journey lasts at least six weeks. Yakutsk is situated upon the Lena, and is the principal town, where the choicest furs are brought in their way to Kiachta, as well from Kamtchatka as from the Northern parts of Siberia, which lay upon the rivers Lena, Yana, and Endigirka. At Yakutsk the goods are embarked upon the Lena, towed up the stream of that river as far as Vercholensk, or still farther to Katsheg; from thence they are transported over a short tract of land to the rivulet Buguldeika, down that stream to the lake Baikal, across that lake to the mouth of the Selenga, and up that river to the neighbourhood of Kiachta.
[Footnote 119: The furs, which are generally landed upon the Eastern coast of Kamtchatka, are either sent by sea to Bolchoresk, or are transported across the Peninsula in sledges drawn by dogs. The latter conveyance is only used in winter: it is the usual mode of travelling in that country. In summer there is no conveyance, as the Peninsula contains neither oxen, horses, or rein-deer. S. R. G. III. p. 478.]
In order to give the reader some notion of that vast tract of country, over which the merchandize is frequently transported by land carriage, a list of the distances is here subjoined.
From Petersburg to Moscow 734 versts. Moscow to Tobolsk 2385 Tobolsk to Irkutsk 2918 Irkutsk to Kiachta 471 6508
From Irkutsk to Nershinsk 1129 Nershinsk to Zuruchaitu 370
From Ochotsk to Yakutsk 927 Yakutsk to Irkutsk 2433
From Selenginsk to Zuruchaitu 850 Zuruchaitu to Pekin 1588 Kiachta to Pekin 1532
The Chinese transport their goods to Kiachta chiefly upon camels. It is four or five days journey from Pekin to the wall of China, and forty-six from thence across the Mongol desert to Kiachta[120].