I20 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



After our repast, Vasska's first attempt, we caught 

 siofht for the first time of the Koriak volcano, now 

 extinct, raising its lofty snow-clad cone through the 

 gap between the hills north-west of Petropavlovsk. 

 To the right lies the lower but active volcano 

 Avatchinsky {8,000 ft.), which was emitting a small 

 cloud of white smoke ; a formidable eruption of that 

 volcano had taken place in October, 1894, and all its 

 slopes were covered with a thick layer of lava, 

 I learnt that in the previous year it had given signs 

 of disturbance, and that a slight earthquake had 

 been felt at Petropavlovsk. Dr. Tioushoff, whose ac- 

 quaintance I made later, had ascended the mountain 

 almost to the summit four months after the eruption, 

 and obliged me with a most vivid description of his 

 experience. I noticed that a strong south-easterly 

 wind blew constantly during the day, from nine a.m. to 

 seven p.m., with marvellous regularity; evenings were 

 perfectly calm. Fogs are almost always brought by 

 southerly winds ; north-east winds never fail to bring 

 on storms, and when a hunter talks of the '" nord-ost " 

 the expression implies the maximum of a rough time 

 and imminent danger. Numbers of bear skins for 

 sale never ceased to strew the thresholds of our tents. 

 The price of them — from two to five roubles apiece — 

 was not excessive ; they pointed to the huge size of 



