IV.] TFE ARRANGE OUR JOURNEY. 75 



had visited the greater part of the peninsula. Owing to the 

 difficulties of communication excepting in the winter season, he 

 had abundant time on his hands, which he had devoted with in- 

 defatigable ardour to his favourite pursuits. Geology, surve}dng, 

 palaeontology, photography and ornithology, — each and all had 

 occupied his leisure hours, with results which were evidenced by 

 the richness of his collections. I^^one of the other Europeans knew 

 anything of the country outside Petropaulovsky, and to him alone 

 we were indebted for what information we could get about our 

 projected route, as well as for many useful hints on Kamschatkan 

 travel. 



Our intention was, if the plan were feasible, to travel north- 

 wards from Avatcha Bay until we struck the head waters of the 

 Great Kamschatka Eiver, where we were to procure canoes if 

 possible, or if not to construct rafts, and by this means float down 

 the stream to the sea. Meanwhile, the yacht was to remain in 

 Petropaulovsky'" harbour for a month or six weeks, and then 

 proceed to the mouth of the river to await our arrival. We found 

 that Dr. Dybowski, in spite of his extensive travels in the peninsula, 

 had not hunself performed this journey, neither was he aware of 

 any other person who had attempted it. Communication often 

 takes place with Nischni Kamschatka — an ostrog near the mouth of 

 the river — in the winter, but the sledges do not, as in Lapland, 

 travel on the river; and though occasionally a few of the lonely 

 settlements upon its banks are passed, the track leads for the most 

 part by short cuts overland, and we had no means of judging the 

 distances or the length of time necessary for our journey. From 

 Dr. Dybowski, however, we were able to obtain all the information 

 that was to be got upon the subject ; and to learn that, whatever 

 other difficulties we might have to encounter, that of an insufficient 

 supply of food was certainly not one. His accounts of the really 

 marvellous abundance of fish, which at the time seemed almost 

 incredible, we were destined later to find, if anything, understated. 

 Whether the almost exclusive fish diet of the inhabitants of the 



