A CHINESE TOWN 53 



War had passed over it like an avenging scourge. 

 On the landing-place stood all the town officials in 

 shining uniforms assembled to greet M. Isvolsky. I 

 ran to the telegraph office and found a message from 

 Mr. Schwabe informing me that he had secured five 

 berths for us on the steamer starting for Kamchatka 

 on the 14th. There was no time to be lost, but the 

 Siingari was not yet in sight, and only five days re- 

 mained to reach Khabarovsk (over 500 miles) and get 

 over the Ussuri Railway (another 450 miles) to Vladi- 

 vostok. In this emergency M. Isvolsky once more 

 came to our relief. He proposed that the Kam- 

 chatkan party should embark with all its belongings 

 on the Snugari, and start immediately. It was to be 

 a race for life or death. In the meanwhile, having 

 bought the stores we needed for this headlono- race, I 

 went in search of the hunter, Lalitin, to obtain con- 

 firmation of the consul's statement concerning sport in 

 the Amur district. Instead of the mighty hunter of 

 the Khingan, I found his son, who had arrived a 

 couple of days previously, sent by his mother to meet 

 us. He gave me the sorrowful news of the death of 

 his father, who had been murdered the previous year 

 by the Chinese '' Khunkhuz," or wandering brigands, 

 whom he had pursued in the woods for having stolen 

 his rifle. The son seemed to know but little of sport. 



