1 7 6 A'.4 MSCHA TKA . [chap. 



childish one. I had too much belief in his moral character to 

 attempt to account for his peculiarities by any such physical reasons 

 as " the rheumatics " — a cause that one of us profanely suggested. 

 As a retriever he was inimitable. We had shot a duck that fell 

 far out into the shallow lake, and while* looking at it, and calcu- 

 lating the possibilities of its drifting ashore, Verglaski came up and 

 realised the situation. He glanced at us in a way that said plainly, 

 " This is not my business, but if you will wait here-, I will see if I 

 can get it out for you," and proceeded to do so with a three-yards- 

 a-minute pace, and a concentration of purpose that was irresist- 

 ibly ridiculous. Poor old dog; it was the last service he ever 

 rendered us. 



We had contemplated sleeping on the rafts, and continuing our 

 journey through the night, as the river is at this part free from 

 dangers, but as it would have made it impossible for us to go on 

 with our observations, we eventually decided not to do so. We 

 accordingly paddled on until it was too dark to see, and making 

 the rafts fast to the bank, slept as well as we could at the bottom 

 of the canoes, so as to 1 )e in readiness for starting at dawn upon the 

 morrow. In the way of saving time the experiment was successful, 

 and we were oft' again at 4. 45 a.m., reaching the hamlet of Kama- 

 koff'skaya after three hours' steady paddling. Just before arriving 

 we awoke to the distressing fact that Verglaski was not with us, 

 and as no one had seen him since leaving the camp of the pre\'ious 

 nisht, there was but little doubt that he had been left Ijehind. 

 Jacof at once borrowed a canoe and went in search of him, hoping 

 to catch us up before nightfall. Lleanwhile we had breakfast and 

 inspected the village, which, in spite of its imposing name, is a 

 miserable, bleak-looking place, with a population of barely fifty. 

 Perhaps it is with some latent feeling of modesty that the inhabit- 

 ants have shortened Kamakoff'skaya to Kamaki. The day was 

 wretchedly cold and gloomy, and the aspect of two half-starved 

 Kamschatdale children, clad in a tattered rag of furs, who sat 

 shivering on a rotten old canoe which lay half-buried in the mud, 



