i86 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



hung over this bright picture of northern magnificence, 

 as yet unspoiled by the presence of man ; to me it 

 appeared hke some fantastic country as described in 

 tales of childhood, which rises in an instant and as 

 quickly vanishes at a stroke of the fairy's wand. But 

 alas! no well-meaning giant nor friendly dwarfs in- 

 habited these lonely regions to welcome us. 



The tiny stream which flowed beneath us was the 

 source of the great Kamchatka River. It enters the 

 lake from the east, and running out of its western 

 extremity, joins another stream from the south, some 

 three miles above our camp ; gradually shifting round 

 through the tundra, it eventually takes a direction due 

 north, which is maintained across the whole peninsula 

 to the mouth at Nijni-Kamchatsk. The lake, w^hich it 

 w^as proposed that very evening to call " Lake Sofka 

 Demidoff," in honour of the only lady who had ever 

 visited it, was about two miles long by three-quarters 

 of a mile in breadth, and lay at an altitude of 3,500 

 feet above sea-level. Narrow at both its extremities, 

 it widens towards the middle ; its waters are wonder- 

 fully clear and, I imagine, very deep, as its banks are 

 fairly abrupt on every side. The sketch (which I 

 purposely refrain from calling a map) of this lake, and 

 of the sources of the Kamchatka River, showing its 

 initial direction, which I made on the spur of the 



