CHAPTER X. 



KAMSCHATKA. 



Cape Kliu — Walrus — Permanence of snow at the sea-level — Betchevinskaya Bay — 

 Hunting Ovis nimcola — Impassability of the bush — A magnificent bag — Descrip- 

 tion and measurements of the Kamschatkan Bighorn — Xatural breakwaters — 

 Seals and bears — Lost in the bush — Return to Petropaulovsky — Unveiling of 

 the monument to the affair of 1854 — Ship's pets — Leave Avatcha Bay for the 

 south coast — An otter-himters' village — Method of killing the sea-otter — The 

 peoples of the peninsula — Lamuts in Kamschatka — We leave for Japan — South- 

 easterly gale — Encounter a typhoon — Loss of Le Gonidec — Another gale — 

 Repair damages in Yokohama. 



The eastern shores of the peninsula of Kamschatka are broken by 

 three well-marked promontories : — Capes Kamschatka, Kronotsky, 

 and Shipunsky ; and it was for the latter — the southernmost — that 



we shaped our course. Our friend E , the captain of the schooner 



Nemo, had recommended this part of the coast as being the best 

 ground for wild sheep and walrus, and though he had himself 

 hunted it on his voyage to the mouth of the Kamschatka Eiver, 

 we hoped that a sufficient time had elapsed for the animals to have 

 returned to their old quarters. ISTearing the land a little to the 

 north of Cape Shipunsky, it soon became evident that the outline of 

 the chart of this part of the coast had been traced according to the 

 fancy of the cartographer. Instead of a nearly straight shore 

 devoid of dangers, we fovmd ourselves at the entrance of a fine bay * 

 nearly two miles in depth, running in a south-westerly direction. 

 The scenery was wild and lonely-looking to a degree, but the 

 jagged precipices and rocky islets of which it was in great part 

 VOL. J. p 



