CHAPTER IV. 



A Kamchatkan hunter— Bear skins and sables — Mode of hunting the sable 

 —Market value of the fur— A hunter frozen to death— Wild sheep in 

 Asatcha Bay— Preparations for a start— High prices at the stores — 

 A Chinese c>^^/— Salmon and sea-trout— Other fishes of Kamchatka- 

 Japanese fish-poachers — Netting the rivers — Volcanoes of Koriak 

 and Avatchinsky — Many bear skins — Large numbers exported to 

 America— Curious antlers of caribou— Pallas's sea-eagle— Hauling 

 the nets— Embark on board the S/oroJ— Loss oi our fourth boat— 

 A team of sledge-dogs photographed— The ship's engine breaks down 

 — Again in camp un the sandspit — A start for the Ganal Range — The 

 harbour bar— Dug-out canoes for river-work— Ten miles in twelve 

 hours— Reach Khutor— The natives described— Bargaining for ponies 

 — A stampede — Deluge of rain— Capercaillie in the birch woods — 

 Tracks of a bear — Swarm of mosquitoes — A wet and dry tundra — The 

 Bolshaia River — Arrive at Natchiki. 



MIKHAIL KORIAKIXE, the future admiral of 

 our ephemeral ilotiila. and subsequently our 

 caravajibas/ii, was a young hunter of undaunted energy 

 and endless goodwill. He belonged to that set of 

 half a dozen Petropavlovsk hunters who dail\' risk 

 their lives after bear or sable, daringly facing ocean 

 storms in their small fishing-smacks, or endure starva- 

 tion and cold in the torments of snow during long- 

 arctic winters. Many a tale he told us of the hard- 



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