no A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



ships his party had undergone while bear-hunting" on 

 the vast snowfields of Kamchatka. They would sail 

 along the coast, and leaving their boat in some shel- 

 tered bay, push into the interior through unexplored 

 wastes, with nothing but their riHes and ammunition ; 

 they would remain months at a time in pursuit of 

 game across unknown regions, suffering- aofonv ciurine 

 intensely cold and sleepless nights, and frequently 

 returning with eighty or a hundred bear skins, which 

 they exchanged with American dealers for articles of 

 prime necessity. They all carried Winchester rifles, 

 and when they ran out of ammunition, American 

 tradesmen refused to supply them with cartridges 

 unless they took another rifle with a corresponding 

 exchange, thus obliging them to throw away their old 

 rifle. In fact, I was told that a common lamp-glass 

 could not be obtained without acquiring a new lamp. 

 This unusual mode of traffic had l)een imposed upon 

 them by /\mericans, the sole purveyors to these 

 northern tribes, who had helplessly to submit to these 

 tyrannic exactions. Mikhail told us that sable skins 

 were becoming very scarce on account ot the great 

 demand for them. An average skin fetched twenty- 

 five roubles, and a good sable-hunting dog was most 

 valuable. The dog tracks the animal to its abode 

 under the roots of a tree or in some fissure of a rock ; 



