oA An Ex-Victorian Collector's Experience. [,^( 'j^ij. 



attempt the hazardous undertaking of trying to reach our store 

 camp and bring provisions, which began to get scarce, except 

 the everlasting bear flesh and mountain mutton. Here again, 

 pending the return of the rest of the party for the purpose 

 stated, I was left alone for i6 days. Summer had set in, how- 

 ever, with " might and main," with a most prolific springing 

 up of vegetation, and a wealth of flowers such as nowhere 

 else occurs, tropics not excepted — the only compensation for the 

 millions of vicious, biting mosquitoes, as active in the day as 

 during the night (or, rather, its equivalent). 



The mosquitoes surpassed anything I ever experienced, and I 

 am in a position to know and remember from Central Africa. 

 They simply make life intolerable here, and one is glad when 

 the cold winds set in again. 



However, the party returned safely, having dodged the elements, 

 and soon after, on 15th July, our steamer Stepney returned, 

 according to arrangement, to take us up from here north to 

 Anadir and the extreme east coast of Siberia. Here we bagged 

 20 bears and as many mountain sheep, not forgetting some 

 seals, which on one occasion when hunting them, threatened to 

 swamp us by charging the boat. They are big brutes, and can 

 become nasty customers occasionally. 



We were steaming and coasting, landing occasionally for the 

 purpose of walrus-hunting, for 34 days. After being much 

 knocked about and driven north as far as the Arctic Circle, 

 negotiating the Behring Strait, we reached Nome in Northern 

 Alaska late in August. 



A short stay here for refitting, and the old Stepney returned, 

 or is supposed to have done so, to Siberia and Japan, and we 

 embarked on a North-West American liner to go south-west to 

 the Aleutian Islands, where we landed once more at Dutch 

 Harbour. These islands are magnificent to look at, but not 

 much for sport, except seal, fur and other. Our stay was brief, 

 for a 5 -ton .schooner awaited us to take us back to the Behring 

 Sea, north of the islands, to look for polar bear, but which we 

 never sighted. More walrus here, and I do not want another 

 experience with these flippered and tusked lumps. This was 

 a poaching excursion, as their hunting and bagging is 

 prohibited in these waters, so we had to keep quiet and dodge 

 revenue cuttters ! After tliis bit of by-play we rounded the 

 Alaskan Peninsula, and made the Island of Kodiak, where we 

 re-equip in order to sail north again into Cook Inlet for hunting 

 the quaint-looking and mighty moose. A week's sailing and 

 tcssing brought us to the Kcnai Peninsula, where the real fun 

 began, if a series of disasters may be called so. Seven attempts 

 did we make going up the River Kassilof, to reach the Glacier 

 Lakes and that of the Kenai River. We came to grief twice by 

 upsetting on the rocks and in the rapids. I lost all except what 



