Note 7 — Chapter XLIX · THE ISLAND OF SAKHALIN.

A civil officer, whom I know, was told of complaints about the food, to which he replied, “What can I do? They now get the supply of fish by contract, and allow so small a sum that I know it cannot be good. I can only bring the matter before my superiors, and, if they do nothing, I am powerless. I cannot pay it out of my own pocket!” Again, a naval officer told me that, in taking across provisions to the island, the smell of the fish on board was almost insupportable. The fish, he said, were bad, and the salt meat bad, though the bread was good.