226 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



our last hopes of shooting along the coasts of Kam- 

 chatka. 



The season was now achancino-, and time had come 

 to take measures for our return journey, as we were 

 told that no more ships would call again before next 

 year. The Baikal was expected every day from 

 NijniTvamchatsk, but the prospects of a month's 

 cruise on that steamer, which was to visit all the ports 

 of the Okhotsk Sea before ooino- back to Vladivostok, 

 was no pleasant prospect. Our sole remaining chance 

 was the Tsitsikar, so we seized the opportunity, and 

 securincr accommodation on board, booked to Niko- 

 laievsk, a town lying at the mouth of the Amur 

 opposite the island of Sakhalin. In the meanwhile 

 we had ten days at our disposal before the final 

 departure. 



Our friend the Ispravnik paid us a visit in the 

 evening, and confided to us that durincv our absence 

 there had been serious alarm at Petropavlovsk. 

 Several Japanese schooners, chartered by the Seal 

 Fisheries Co., happened to be sailing in the bay at 

 the time ; a quarrel having taken |)lace between one 

 of the inhabitants and a Jap, the former had come to 

 the Ispravnik with the report that the Japanese had 

 big guns on board their schooners, and that they were 

 about to make an attack on the town, with the object 



