THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
that was before the completion of the Trans-Siberian railway, and the 
time could be much shortened in these days. Going by way of Siberia 
and Vladivostok and thence by ship to Kamchatka, the journey out 
need not take more than three weeks. The departure of the boats for 
Petropavlovsk, the chief settlement of the peninsula, fixes the shooting 
season; one must leave Vladivostok in June, and return in August. Thus 
not much time is allowed, unless one contemplates a winter in those 
dreary and hostile regions. 
The habitat of the Kamchatkan sheep is perhaps the most peculiar of 
all the ovis tribe. The high latitude at which he lives seems to compensate 
for high altitude, for the herds are to be found on the coast at no great 
height above the sea level. They are common at 3,000 to 4,000 feet 
on the ranges in the interior during the summer months, but probably 
all migrate seawards in winter. In summer they inhabit very rugged 
country, consisting of huge snow fields and bare ridges of volcanic forma- 
tion. The comparative scarcity of mosquitoes in this zone may tempt the 
sheep thither during the worst two months. Demidoff considered their 
habitat in summer to be more like ibex ground than sheep country, so 
rough was it. 
There are considerable difficulties of transport in Kamchatka; the 
forests of birch, willow, juniper and rhododendron form obstacles of no 
small account, rivers in flood, and myriads of mosquitoes, add to one’s 
difficulties. Thus it is that an extensive journey is difficult to arrange, 
and the existence of sheep is only known of in the vicinity of the Avatcha 
Bay, on which Petropavlovsk lies, and around the extinct volcano of 
Kamchatskaia Vershina which Demidoff and Littledale visited. They are 
said to be numerous on the coastal range to the north and south of 
Petropavlovsk, and Russian travellers report the existence of wild sheep 
right away up to the Asiatic shores of Bering Straits. Height is not 
necessary for them, but rather a big zone of country between the 
forest line and perpetual snow. The forest dwindles to rhododendron 
scrub at about 3,000 feet in these latitudes, and the snow line is about 
4,500 feet. Although the high volcanoes of the Kamchatkan Peninsula, 
which rise to 8,000 and even 11,000 feet, may grant good protection 
for game on their lower slopes, they are not necessarily the best 
ground, some of the smaller ridges being much more frequently inhabited 
by them. The hunter is certain of getting amongst sheep, if he gives his 
whole attention to it, and when once found they are, apparently, very 
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