102 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



ornamented with stamped designs, and are occasionally painted, or 

 rather dyed, with blue and white ; while the oval shape so commonly 

 seen in Scandinavia is not infrequent. To the European traveller 

 the tree is equally useful. Cups and other articles can be made 

 w^ith the greatest readiness ; fires can be lighted in the wettest 

 weather with the thin inflammable bark, and the inner layers of 

 the latter form excellent writing-paper, the characters on which no 

 quantity of rain will injure or render illegible. 



The scenery some miles north of Narchiki begins to alter in 

 character, an alteration that is distinctly for the better. The 

 monotony of the birch -forests is relieved from time to time by 

 openings where the dense undergrow^th is supplanted by little rocky 

 knolls covered with bright mosses. The ground becomes more 

 broken and the open spaces larger, and before long the country 

 approximates closely in character to that which, in ScandinaA'ia, 

 would be designated the lower f jells. "We had hitherto shot but 

 little game, but here ptarmigan were abundant,^ and we w^ere able 

 with ease to secure as many as were necessary for the table. 

 Farther on, we came to a small stream, which was, most probably, 

 an affluent of the Great Bolcheresk Eiver, which debouches into the 

 Okhotsk Sea on the western coast of the peninsula. It was crowded 

 with dead and dying fish ; and the remnants of some recently 

 devoured ones upon the bank, together with fresh spoor of l:)ear 

 around them, told us that, in all probability. Bruin was not 

 far off. 



I had never before seen the tracks of this animal in such al)un- 

 dance, but farther north it was common enough to see the river- 

 banks as much trampled as if a herd of cattle had been driven down 

 to water. The bears at this season of the year live entirely upon 

 salmon. Later, when this diet fails them, they take to berries, upon 

 which they li^e until the time of hybernation, which is generally 



^ Probably a sub-species of, or perhaps identical with, the Dal-ryper or Willow 

 Grouse of Scandinavia {Lagopus alhus). I unfortunately omitted to preserve specimens 

 of this bird until it was too late, and we did not shoot any after we had once begun 

 the river journey. 



