20O A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



food when snow covers everything several feet deep, 

 is a mystery. There can be no doubt tliat Oi'is uivicola 

 is considerably more plentiful along the coasts, where 

 life is made easier for them, both on account of the 

 constant breeze, which blows away mosquitoes in 

 summer and carries off the snow in winter, as well as 

 for the capital grazing, partly due to the sea salt. The 

 well-known Normandy prcs-salcs owe their celebrity 

 to the same cause. I am inclined to believe that 

 Kamchatkan bighorn, for the same reasons, grow 

 larger and stronger along the sea coast than in the 

 interior of the peninsula. The fact remains that the 

 heads obtained by me, or picked up by the natives 

 near the coast, proved finer than any of those which 

 we obtained in the Ganal region. 



Taking the horns and some meat, we now retraced 

 our steps in the direction of camp. It was no light 

 job, heavily laden as we were, the General and I, to 

 reascend the ridge ; luckily on the other side we 

 were able to slide down the steep snow -shoots almost 

 the whole way back to the place where the ponies 

 awaited us, and reached the tents in three hours, at 

 seven p.m. Littledale had already returned with 

 three fair heads, one of which measured thirty-three 

 inches, the other two being smaller, lie had only 

 seen these three rams together with a herd of ten 



