134 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



years' experience in the Northern Pacific. He had 

 taken to whaHng in his younger days, and had risked 

 his Hfe in many a terrific storm. Not destined to 

 become a sailor, he had come over from Finland in the 

 sixties as a colonist, with his wife and children, and had 

 settled down in the Ussuri district, on the Chinese 

 frontier, with a view to farming. He was prospering 

 in every way, when one night, during his absence, 

 a party of Chinese brigands fell upon his farm, 

 slaughtered his children, and carried away his wife, 

 whom he had never seen again, notwithstanding his 

 desperate efforts to trace the criminals. Since then he 

 had vowed an everlasting hatred of Chinamen, and 

 had taken to the sea. 



Next morning, the same engine still bumping, it 

 was decided that we should continue our journey with 

 the aid of the other engine, at the rate of four knots 

 an hour, and if only the wind was favourable, we 

 should have the sails up to help. Wt started in this 

 manner at eleven a.m., and reached the entrance of 

 that ill-ftited Avatcha Bay in a couple of hours. 

 Here we were met by the same heavy swell, together 

 with a fresh southerly breeze. We could not possibly 

 get beyond X'ilutcha Inlet that day on account of the 

 slow speed and contrary wind. Ikit here again fortune 

 turned against us. Hardly had we passed the last 



