^"Ix^" I ^" Ex-Victorian CoUector's Experience. "5^ 



time of year (April), until we reached some likely bay, promising 

 a field for sport — bear and mountain sheep. Further mishap 

 was in store for us when attempting- a landing, unnecessarily 

 precipitated by the over-haste, displayed all along the line, of our 

 leader. Of the three boats brought with us, the first put over 

 the side of the steamer, owing to rough sea and bad anchorage, 

 got smashed. The second, loaded to the gunwales, got swamped 

 immediately. With the utmost exertion we managed to 

 save our gear and equipment. The damage by sea-water was 

 serious. At last we got under way in an ugly sea, rowing 

 ourselves into a big bay. The steamer left us here to return to 

 Japan and Okotsk Sea for trading purposes. On the way to a 

 landing place, after six hours' hard work, we got waterlogged, 

 the boats leaking like sieves. This completed our discomfiture. 

 Eventually, after a big struggle and frequent grounding, and by 

 walking and wading up to our waists in the icy-cold sea, along 

 the shore, shoving the overloaded boats, we came to a suitable 

 camping ground. Everything was ice and snow bound, and to 

 get our loads up the icy slopes was no joke. From 4 a.m. till 

 1 1 p.m. we slog and sweat our actual first day. This promised 

 well for the future ! 



A week's stay at Bitchivinsky Bay, as this man- and God-for- 

 saken ice-land is called, produced 8 bears and 2 sheep, and I did 

 not get much rest or sleep tugging off and fixing up the hides 

 and skulls of these brutes, not to mention the skinning and pre- 

 paring birds. I had to shoot too. For about three weeks after, 

 in daily stages of 20 hours' rowing and pulling in all sorts of 

 sea and weather from bay to bay, along a dangerous coast, and 

 not without narrow escapes, &c., we settled once more at another 

 place, and no less desolate. There we erected a store camp, in 

 which I was left behind by myself, whilst the others, taking the 

 boats with them, went in search of happier hunting ground. 

 Here I eked out a lonely and miserable existence for ten long 

 days, with practically no nights, on account of the advancing 

 season of the northern solstices. I was practically stranded and 

 cut off from the world in case of disaster overtaking the others 

 during their absence, being caged in on land by towering ice 

 and snow-clad mountains to either side, and no chance of 

 footing it anywhere in case of emergency. To my great relief 

 the party hove in sight again, after the period mentioned, to 

 take me up. Once more we faced the open sea, and landed 

 some 30 or 40 miles farther north. 



Here it was that a more serious disaster overtook us, by 

 attempting a landing with a gale that had sprung up, and which 

 dashed our boats in pieces on the rocks. So we were practically 

 shipwrecked, besides losing much gear and provisions, as well 

 as private accoutrements. By dint of resource and much exer- 

 tion we managed to repair one of the boats sufficiently to 



