T.] AN INDIAN SUMMER. 109 



the tent, and at noon the niercmy stood at nearly 80° Fahr. in the 

 shade. These hot days are not nuusual at the end of August, and 

 constitute a sort of Indian summer, which, as in Lapland, is but 

 the immediate precursor of an autumn so short as hardly to be 

 dignified by the name of a season. At sunset the temperature fell 

 rapidly, and at night it was so cold that we were glad of four 

 blankets, the thermometer being at or about freezing point. A 

 range of something like fifty degrees in a single day is not often 

 seen, but weather of an almost exactly similar kmd is met with 

 durmg winter on the high table -lands of Southern Africa. The 

 Kamschatkan autumn cannot always be relied on, for, from what 

 we could gather from the natives, it is not unfrequently attended 

 with a very heavy rainfall, and occasionally with much wind. 



We had hoped to find Bighorn in the mountains in the 

 neighbourhood, but, greatly to our disappointment, the people of 

 the village told us that these magnificent sheep never come down 

 to the lower spurs of the range before winter, and that it was 

 useless to go after them. This was the second time we had to 

 give up the idea of hunting them. We were, however, more 

 fortunate with the bears, and succeeded in bringing one to bag 

 upon the first day after our arrival. 



