X.] UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT. 221 



struggle, he reached the chffs of Betche^onskaya Bay, and knew 

 that he was safe. Fortunately there were no fir -thickets to 

 contend with such as I had found on the other side of the bay, or 

 the adventure would probably have had a different ending, but it 

 will probably be many years before he forgets the night he spent 

 when lost in the Kamschatkan bush. 



On the evening of September 23rd we found ourselves once 

 more in Petropaulovsky harbour. The Eussian man-of-war Afrika, 

 employed in the protection of the Komandorski group, and in 

 surveying the coast, was in port, and also the Alexandria, a San 

 Francisco steamer which pays an annual ^dsit to Petropaulovsky 

 to take away the furs. During our expedition through the penin- 

 sula the Afrika. and Vestnik had consecrated the monument in 

 memory of the affair of August, 1854. This monument, an obelisk 

 about twenty-five feet high, was erected in the previous year by 

 the Vestnik on the spit of land formmg the natural breakwater of 

 the harbour, the materials having been brought from Eussia. It is 

 of stone, painted black, and surmounted with a gilt "morning star" 

 and cross. On the eastern side is the following inscription in 



Eussian : — 



IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN 



AT THE 



REPULSE OF THE ATTACK OF THE ANGLO-FRENCH FLEET, 

 20th & 24th AUGUST, 1854. 



And on the reverse side : — 



ERECTED IN 1881. 



Before the consecration the blue-jackets were marched to the 

 little palisaded enclosure, where, under three crosses, the Eussian, 

 French, and English dead lie buried side by side. Here a long 

 prayer was offered over the Eussian grave ; but when the Captain 

 of the Vestnik, in deference to the presence of some of the yacht's 

 party, desired that the pope would perform the same ceremony 



