222 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



the dug-out, wagging- his tail with contentment, and 

 apparently none the sadder for having left his home 

 for ever. The same distance which had required 

 twelve hours' incessant struggle up-stream was now 

 insensibly done in three. At nine a.m. we were quite 

 astonished to find ourselves off the fishing hamlet 



DOWN THE AVATCHA RIVKR IN DOUBLE DUG-OUTS. 



of Avatcha ; as the General had foreseen, the water 

 at the bar was shallower than usual. It took the 

 men at least an hour to drag our rafts over the sand, 

 and when we were finally afioat again in the bay, the 

 boats we expected to await us were nowhere to be 

 seen. Silly, who had been sent to Petropavlovsk for 

 them, had probably lost his way, or stopped for a rest 



