WILD SHEEP FOUND 205 



alder bushes, but I was too much intent on sheep, and 

 was not to be distracted by bears. 



Abandoning Tallent to his work on the banks of 

 Lake Sofka Demidoff, and leaving- our horses in a 

 hollow, the General and I. with a gillie, pursued our 

 course, and presently came to a small mountain lake 

 at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. In order to in- 

 spect as much ground as possible, I despatched the 

 gillie up a side ridge to examine the corrie beyond, 

 whilst I continued towards the higher ridges, toiling 

 for over an hour up lava debris in a gloomy gorge 

 in a due northerly direction. After having spied 

 in vain the near slopes of the peak from the summit 

 of one of the boulders, we discovered a little further 

 some likely ground before us, A broken, sloping 

 ridge, bordering the left side of the Kamchatka 

 stream, led to a loftier hill from which ran down on the 

 opposite side rows of queer-shaped volcanic pinnacles 

 {kekuria, as the General called them), forming a 

 huge amphitheatre of rolling stones and blocks of 

 detached rock. Here we began to spy more carefully. 

 A couple of sheep soon came in view, though too 

 distant for us to judge of their sex. After a short 

 hesitation with regard to the wind, we decided in 

 f^wour of prudence, and ascended to the top of a hill 

 to obtain a better view of the oround before oroino- 



o 00 



