224 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
which was full of salmon, and came across wild-geese 
and ptarmigan in numbers, and more than twenty 
bears ; we bagged two arid took their skins, but they 
were in poor condition. We cut off the legs at the 
knee-joints, and took them on board. The flesh 
turning out to be good, I sent ashore for the hind¬ 
quarters, but the meat from these was so rank as 
to be uneatable. Evidently the extremities are the 
last places to be affected by the food the animal is 
living on. The next day we went on shore again, 
seeing ten bears, one of which we killed. 
Alaid Island was next touched at, and then Para- 
mushir, but we saw no otters. On September 3 we 
lost our boatswain. About 11 p.m. he was reported 
to be in a fit; I at once went to him, and found him 
unconscious, with no sign of breathing or heart 
action. I tried remedies similar to those used on 
the previous voyage, when he was overcome in the 
same way, but all to no purpose. After three hours 
I came to the conclusion he was past recovery, and 
ordered the carpenter to make a coffin. We buried 
him in a grave well above high-water mark, under 
the mountains at the southern end of Paramushir. 
The boatswain was a great favourite with every¬ 
one, all hands leaving the vessel to attend the 
funeral. We placed the coffin in a boat, using the 
British flag as a pall, and towed it ashore. After 
lowering the coffin into the grave, we fired three 
volleys from our rifles over it, and then the earth 
was filled in by the men. Nothing was said, 
everyone’s heart was too full, and each of us, in 
characteristic Anglo-Saxon fashion, walked away in 
different directions in order not to betray that 
natural emotion which one feels on such an occasion, 
