216 KAMSGHATKA. [chap. 



Bolclieresk Valley, and it probably exists at low altitudes on the 

 great volcanoes near the month of the Kamschatka Pdver. Every 

 one of those we shot was a male, — their ages ranging, as far as we 

 could judge, from three to six years. They kept in small herds of 

 from three to nine individuals. As in the case of others of the 

 same genus, the females and young males doubtless keep apart, 

 but we were not fortunate enough to discover their habitat, neither 

 could we obtain any information about them from the natives.-^ 



Early next morning the most entliusiastic of our party proceeded 

 in the lifeboat to thcground of the preceding day, hoping to add 

 still further to the bag, while two of us started to explore the 

 magnificent harbour at the entrance of which we lay. Betche- 

 vinskaya Bay, the position and extent of which is but roughly 

 indicated in the Eussian charts, is a narrow inlet some five miles 

 in depth, girt with precipitous cliff's of three or four hundred feet 

 for the seaward third of its extent. At this point two low and 

 narrow strips of beach run out from the base of the cliffs on either 

 side, leaving a passage barely fifty yards in width in the very centre 

 of the fjord, but deep enough to admit a vessel of the largest size. 

 Within this the cliffs disappear, and an extensive and perfectly land- 

 locked basin is entered, surrounded by high hills sloping gradually 

 to the water's edge — as good a harbour as it is possible to imagine. 

 Of the mode of formation of the two promontories I have just 

 alluded to I can offer no explanation. They are so unnatural in 

 appearance, and so closely resemble artificial breakwaters, as at 

 once to attract the notice of the most careless observer. The long 

 spit of beach running out at the entrance of Petropaulovsky 

 harbour is of exactly similar formation, and the same phenomenon 

 is said to occur at other places along the coast. Nature is not 

 very lavish of her harbours on these shores, but the few that exist 

 are excellent. 



As we entered, the placid svn^face of the inner basin was dotted 

 in every direction by the square black heads of seals, of which 

 1 Cf. article by the author On Ovis nivicola, "Proc. Zool. Soc," 1885, p. 675. 



