CHAPTER V. 



The Bolsheretsk valley— Crossing the river — Salmon fishing — Success 

 with spoon bait — Fifteen fish in an hour— Astonishment of the natives 

 — Their mode of fishing described — Hot sulphur springs — Sara/ui, 

 or native potato — Start for ^lalka through the Natchiki valley — 

 Incessant rain — Tracks of bears — Their lo\e of salmon and mode of 

 fishing — Willow grouse first seen — Arrival at Ganal — On the banks of 

 the Bystrala — Mosquitoes in myriads — We engage an old native 

 hunter and his two grandsons — Across the valley of the Bystraia 

 and the Ganal tundra — Clouds of moscjuitoes — Antlers of caribou 

 on the tundra — Crossing the Bystraia — The Kamchatskaia \'ershina, 

 an extinct volcano — Dense brushwood — Tracks of bears — Ten days 

 from the coast ; two months from St. Petersburg — A bear shot 

 — Native method of estimating weight — Two more bears — Wast 

 tracts of moor and snow-fields — Lake Sofka Demidoft' — Return to 

 camp — Littledale brings in four heads of Oz'/s 7tivicflla and a bear — 

 My first glimpse next da)- of Ovis nh'icohi — A young ram missed — 

 l^etter luck with two four-year-old rams ; both bagged — Littledale 

 secures three more rams and a ewe for the British Museum — Amusing 

 adventure with a bear — Skinning heads and taking photographs. 



THE broad Bolsheretsk valley in which we were 

 camped runs in a south-westerly direction, and 

 is bordered on both sides by low alder-covered ranges, 

 patches of snow being- still visible on their higher 

 slopes. In the immediate pro.ximity of Natchiki the 

 hills are mere rolling knolls, intercepted l)y numerous 

 marshy tracts, through which the track winds towards 



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