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In To the Pacific and Arctic with Beechey: The Journal of Lieutenant George Peard of HMS Blossom, 1825–1828, Peard claims that in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, "nearly every family possesses a Cow (against killing which there is a positive order from the Government)".
Which authority made such an "order"?
Apparently the rule did exist. John Dundas Cochrane clarified its origin in his Narrative of a pedestrian journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary, from the frontiers of China to the Frozen sea and Kamtchatka; performed during the years 1820, 1821, 1822, and 1823:
Much benefit has been derived to the colony from the exertions of the present Chief, Captain Rikord. The rule of never allowing a cow to be killed until she is past calving, is in itself excellent, but the stock on hand is so small that a century would elapse before what can be termed herds of cattle could be seen wandering and feasting upon the almost unhounded pastures of the Peninsula.
Apparently Rikord was also responsible for the arrival of some of the cattle, because Cochrane calls some of them "the benevolent present of Captain Rikord".
