the name of a hot southerly wind common in Egypt, of which we find the following description in Mr. Volney's Travels.—These winds, says he, are known in Egypt by the general name of swinds of 50 days; not that they last 50 days without intermission, but because they prevail more frequently in the 50 days preceding and following the equinox. Travellers Kamtschatska, Kamchatka, or Kamchatka; a large peninsula in the north-eastern part of Asia, lying between 51° and 62° of north latitude, and between 173° and 182° of east longitude from the isle of Ferro. It is bounded on the east and south by the sea of Kamtschatka, on the west by the seas of Ochotsk and Penshinsk, and on the north by the country of the Kamtschatska Koriacs.

This peninsula was not discovered by the Russians before the end of the last century. It is probable, however, that some of that nation had visited Kamtschatka before the time above mentioned. For when the Russian Volodimir Atlafloff entered upon the conquest of this peninsula in 1697, he found that the inhabitants had already some knowledge of the Russians. A common tradition as yet prevails among them, that long before the expedition of Atlafloff, one Feodotoff and his companions had resided among them, and had intermarried with the natives; and they still show the place where the Russian habitations stood. None of the Russians remained when Atlafloff first visited Kamtschatka. They are said to have been held in great veneration, and almost deified by the natives; who at first imagined that no human power could hurt them, until they quarrelled among themselves, and the blood was seen to flow from the wounds which they gave each other; and soon after, upon a separation taking place, they were all killed by the natives.

These Russians were thought to be the remains of a ship's crew who had sailed quite round the northeastern promontory of Asia called Tschukutskoi Nos. The account we have of this voyage is as follows:

In 1648, seven ketches or vessels sailed from the mouth of the river Kovyma or Kolyma, lying in the Frozen ocean in about 72° north latitude, and 173° or 174° east longitude from Ferro, in order to penetrate into the eastern ocean. Four of these were never more heard of; the remaining three were commanded by Simon Deshneff, Gerasim Ankudinoff, two chiefs of the Cossacks, and Feodotoff Alexeef, head of the Promyshlensics, or wandering Russians, who occasionally visited Siberia. Each vessel was probably manned with about 30 persons. They met with no obstructions from the ice; but Ankudinoff's vessel was wrecked on the promontory above mentioned, and the crew were distributed on board the two remaining vessels. These two soon after lost sight of each other, and never afterwards rejoined. Deshneff was driven about by tempestuous winds till October, when he was shipwrecked on the northern part of Kamtschatka. Here he was informed by a woman of Yakutsk, that Feodotoff and Gerasim had died of the scurvy; that part of the crew had been slain; and that a few had escaped in small vessels, who had never afterwards been heard of; and these were probably the people who, as we have already mentioned, settled among the Kamtschatkans.

As the inhabitants of this country were neither numerous nor warlike, it required no great force to subdue them; and in 1711 the whole peninsula was finally reduced under the dominion of the Russians. For some years this acquisition was of very little consequence to the crown, excepting the small tribute of furs exacted from the inhabitants. The Russians indeed occasionally hunted, in this peninsula, foxes, wolves, ermines, sables, and other animals, whose skins form an extensive article of commerce among the eastern nations. But the fur trade carried on from thence was very inconsiderable, until the series of islands mentioned in the next article were discovered; since which time the quantities of furs brought from these