The fish are very abundant in the rivers, and no great skill is required in their capture.

Men with an air of veracity told me they had seen streams in the interior of Kamchatka so filled with salmon that one could cross on them as on a corduroy bridge! The story has a piscatorial sound, but it _may_ be true.
House gardening on a limited scale is the principal agriculture of Kamchatka.

Fifty years ago, Admiral Ricord introduced the cultivation of rye, wheat, and barley with considerable success, but the inhabitants do not take kindly to it.

The government brings rye flour from the Amoor river and sells it to the people at cost, and in case of distress it issues rations from its magazines.
When I asked why there was no culture of grain in Kamchatka, they replied: "What is the necessity of it?
We can buy it at cost of the government, and need not trouble ourselves about making our own flour." There is not a sawmill on the peninsula.

Boards and plank are cut by hand or brought from California.