114 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



receive two roubles per day. The latter henceforth 

 was to act as " admiral," a nickname which he kept to 

 the end of our land journey. We decided to start on 

 the next day but one, in order to give the Admiral 

 time to furnish our imposing armada and find the 

 necessary men. Our intentions were to sail out of the 

 bay and steer down the coast towards Cape Lopatka, 

 looking in at the numerous inlets as far as Asatcha 

 (about eighty miles distant), where wild sheep were 

 said to abound in the broken country in the interior. 

 While on one of their bear-hunting expeditions, the 

 men had seen several old rams in the neighbourhood 

 of Asatcha, and the small bay, said Koriakine, was a 

 well-sheltered one. Three or four days, provided we 

 had a favourable wind, would convey us to the 

 ground. (3ur first halt was to be in X'ilutcha Bay, at 

 the foot of that volcano ; our second, in the small gulf 

 beyond the massive promontory of Povorotny, in the 

 proximity of which game was already to be found, 

 though not so plentiful as round Asatcha. Cape 

 Schipunsky, where Dr. Guillemard and his party had 

 secured several Oi'is uivico/a, on the clitls overlooking 

 the sea, stood out some thirty miles north of Avatcha 

 Bay, and had afforded good sport, but, according to 

 the Admiral, that place had been too frequeiilK- visited 

 by native hunters, and landing was extremely difficult 



