I04 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



provided with utensils of every kind, and canned meats 

 and fruit, mostly of American produce; before starting 

 for the interior we took in a large supply of tinned 

 fruit, which turned out a great success. At the back 

 of the hamlet there is a small hos[)ital ; we made the 

 doctor's acquaintance on our return jrjurney. He was 

 one of the successors of the welbknown Dr. Dybovsky, 

 who had lived many years in this inhos|)itable country. 

 Dr. Dybovsky, a naturalist of world-wide tame, had 

 been form.^rly imprisoned in Siberia for joining in the 

 Polish rebellion of 1S64, and having served his time, 

 had been sent to Kamchatka as Government doctor. 

 He had done a great deal towards relieving the 

 natives and prosecuting scientific research in the 

 peninsula, and his name was still mentioned by every- 

 one with the greatest respect and everlasting gratitude. 

 There is one doctor for the whole district, and winter 

 being the only available tinie for travelling, he has to 

 visit all the villages distributing medicine, his patients 

 requiring immediate recovery, for he cannot return 

 to them before a year has elapsed. 



That day w^e met one of the native hunters, from 

 whom we obtained more precise information concern- 

 ing wild sheep. He knew but little of the interior, 

 where, he said, it was practically impossiljle to pene- 

 trate as yet owing to the quantity ot snow lying on 



