KAMSGHA TKA . [chap. 



convenient in this kind of travelling is avoided. A thick layer of 

 bearskin was placed over the saddle-cloth, and effectually pre- 

 vented sore backs. Our personal gear, enclosed in bags made from 

 the skin of the hair-seal, was easily adjusted, but the photographic 

 apparatus and other breakable objects required more care and time, 

 and it was noon before we were fairly off. We bade adieu to our 

 friends, and passed out through the narrow gap at the back of the 

 village towards a small lake of brackish water which hems it in to 

 the north. Here at one time stood the hospital mentioned in 

 Captain Cook's " Voyages," but no trace of the building now remains. 

 Circumventing the lake, we struck off to the north-west and, before 

 long, the track, which had never been very well marked, became 

 obliterated. Our path led through a rough but picturesque country, 

 dotted here and there with stunted birches, and we steered across 

 it for a certain point in the landscape recognised by our guides. 

 By our side trotted one of the most ornamental members of the 

 expedition, whom I have hitherto neglected to introduce — A^ergiaski, 

 a magnificent bear-dog belonging to Jacof, of an aspect almost as 

 solemn as his master. Our horses had hitherto gone fairly well, 

 but during a short halt that we made to adjust some of the packs 

 a stampede occurred, and in an instant the scene was changed to 

 one of the wildest confusion. Kicking, plunging, colliding against 

 trees, and dashing wildly in all directions, it was not long before 

 the horses succeeded in disembarrassing themselves of their loads, 

 and the ground presented the appearance of having been recently 

 passed by a beaten army in full retreat. The horseboys, more than 

 half drunk, pursued the fugitives, cursing volubly in Eussian and 

 Kamschatdale ; while we, to whom these little unpleasantnesses of 

 packhorse travel had not even the merit of novelty, lit our pipes 

 resignedly and proceeded to gather up the fragments. It was a 

 full hour ere we were again en route. These incidents, " tedious as 

 a twice-told tale," and trying alike to the temper and the baggage, 

 recurred again and again. We progressed, as it were, by a series of 

 stampedes, and our horseboys became almost as erratic in their 



