The mail comes once a year, so that the postmaster has very little to do for three hundred and sixty-four days.

Sometimes the mail misses, and then people must wait another twelvemonth for their letters.

What a nice residence it would be for a young man whose sweetheart at a distance writes him every day.

He would get three hundred and sixty-five letters at once, and in the case of a missing mail, seven hundred and thirty of them.
[Illustration: YEARLY MAIL.] Bears are quite numerous around Ohotsk, and their dispositions do not savor of gentleness.

Only a few days before our visit a native was partly devoured within two miles of town.
Many of the dogs are shrewd enough to catch their own fish, but have not learned how to cure them for winter use.