Note 18 — TRAVELS IN KAMTSCHATKA, DURING THE YEARS 1787 AND 1788.

As I stood to examine the Kamtschadale houses, I frequently imagined to myself the disdainful surprise that our French Sybarites would express at the sight, some of whom are so proud of their vast hotels, and others so jealous of their little neat and decorated apartments, where the art of arrangement scarcely falls short of the refined luxury of superb furniture. I conceived them to exclaim—How can human beings live in these miserable huts! A Kamtschadale however, is by no means unhappy in these cabins, whose architecture seem to lead us back to the first age of the world; he lives there with his family in tranquillity; he enjoys at least the happiness of knowing few privations, and of having therefore less wants, and has no objects of envious comparison before his eyes.