Kamchatka, kam-chat'ka, a peninsula of eastern Siberia. With the Kurile Islands, which are really a submerged continuation of the peninsula, it incloses the sea of Okhotsk. A similar occurrence of ocean currents gives it a climate much like that of Labrador. The summer is short and warm, the winter long and cold. A range of lofty mountains extends from northwest to southeast. In the number and activity of volcanoes Kamchatka rivals Java. Half a score or more of giants are ranged in a row along the coast. Though wrapped to their summits with glaciers and perpetual snow, they steam by day and glow by night as though connected with the infernal regions. The southern end of the peninsula is covered with forests of pine, cedar, and birch, shading off northward into barren uplands covered with reindeer moss. The country abounds in furbearing animals. Bears, wolves, and deer are found in the forests. Waterfowl are numerous. The shores swarm with food fishes--herring, cod, etc. The lower reaches of the Amur are noted for salmon. The inhabitants of over a score of Russian villages are engaged in the salmon industry. The north is occupied by a wandering people that live chiefly on the reindeer. The southern natives are hunters and fishers--lazy and intemperate, but good-natured and honest. They live in underground huts in winter. In summer they occupy houses perched on poles. They belong to the Greek church and trade the products of the hunt and chase for dry goods, groceries, whiskey, and coffee, after the fashion of American Indians. See ESKIMO; SIBERIA.