viii PREFACE 



to obliterate the thousands of miles that separated 

 me from that furthermost corner of Asia. The 

 mere word "Kamchatka" then conveyed to my 

 mind ideas of a distant hunting- fairyland across the 

 seas, where marvels abound and countless animals 

 graze undisturbed on the alpine pastures, or lie 

 chewing" their cud in corries round colossal volcanoes. 

 Now that I look back on my trip as an accom- 

 plished fact and a thing of the past, the magic 

 element has given way to close reality. The goal has 

 been reached, the country visited, the scenery admired, 

 the trophies of Oz'is nivicola obtained. But in the 

 dim future, when unexpected events happen to recall 

 souvenirs of bygone days, Kamchatka will reappear 

 in my imagination with its fantastic scenes of ''happy 

 hunting grounds " ; undergone hardships and dis- 

 illusions will nielt before visions of precipitous cliffs 

 and snowy peaks, and the craggy outlines of that 

 inhospitable and neglected land will once more with 

 greater force break the monotony of those vast misty 

 stretches of the North Pacific Ocean. 



DEMIDOFF. 



