RETURN TO KERTCH. 167 



sportsman that with such a weapon the chief dan- 

 ger was to be apprehended from it by the person 

 behind it. Stepan's way of loading, too, was 

 curious : two bullets, one in its ordinary condition, 

 the other chewed into a ragged lump of lead, over 

 a heavy charge of powder : such was his ordinary 

 charge ; but when, as on one occasion, to this was 

 added a second charge of powder and small slugs 

 for pheasants, to save the trouble of extracting the 

 first charge, with an extra bullet put in next day 

 to meet all emergencies, the only wonder is that 

 the weapon was not more fatal to Stepan than 

 to the old she-bear into which he put this extra- 

 ordinary broadside. 



But now I must bid good-by to Stepan. whose 

 last duty was to procure me a horse from the 

 next Cossack station to convey myself and my 

 bears' skulls to Duapse. I bid good-by to my 

 servant with hearty goodwill, for though a poor 

 guide and worse sportsman, he was a faithful, oblig- 

 ing fellow, and honest in the extreme. 



From Heiman's Datch to Duapse is, they say, 

 only thirty-eight versts ; but the road over the 

 shingle at the foot of the cliffs was so bad that it 

 took me from 8 A.M. to (i P.M. to accomplish the 

 journey. 1 did not stay even for food by the way, 

 but plodded steadily on at a foot's pace among 

 rocks and boulders, with the Tartar saddle galling 

 my limbs, and a fierce sun pouring down on the 



