212 KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



wretched Eussian, totally oblivious of the fact that the bighorn 

 were possessed of quite as good eyes and ears as ourselves, danced 

 wildly at the cliff's edge, shouting and gesticulating for us to come 

 on. Struggling madly through the dense brushwood, hot, panting, 

 minus portions of our clothing, and with rage at our hearts, we 

 arrived just in time to get a couple of ineffectual shots as the game 

 disappeared round a corner. My sporting readers will have little 

 difficulty in realising our feelings ; and as it was evident that Jacof s 

 forte lay rather in hunting sables than other game, we at once sent 

 him, like the unlucky commoner in Mr. Punch's aristocratic 

 battue, to " take the chance of a hare back." We felt that after 

 such a fiasco we could hardly expect or deserve success. 



The fates, however, were more propitious than the most sanguine 

 of us had dared to hope. Before mid-day I had bagged three big- 

 horn, and, as I afterwards learnt, most of the other guns had been 

 nearly as fortunate. Anxious to get the game on board before 

 nightfall, I started for the yacht, and wishing to save myself the 

 long round by the top of the cliff, attempted to cross an intervening 

 belt of fir-scrub in order to reach some open grassy ground farther 

 inland. I soon found that the task was far more difficult than I 

 had imagined. The thicket was of old growth, and covered the 

 ground breast-high, the surface everywhere being perfectly level. 

 Contrary to what is usually seen near a coast, the branches grew 

 seawards, and interlacing in every direction, formed a dense mat 

 through which it was almost impossible to force one's way. I had 

 barely gone ten yards before I became jammed in a position from 

 which I extricated myself only with the very greatest difficulty. 

 As I progressed the bush became, if anything, more impassable. 

 Cumbered with a heavy rifle, and already somewhat tired with the 

 morning's exertions, I got gradually more and more exhausted. ]\Iy 

 legs became constantly wedged in the forks of the branches which 

 were too tough to break, and with my feet scarcely ever upon the 

 ground, I fell again and again, lying where I fell from sheer 

 fatigue. The little strip of bush was barely a hundred yards 



