In this interval I had an opportunity of seeing a sable taken alive; the method was very singular, and may give some idea of the manner of hunting these animals.
At some distance from the baths, M. Kasloff remarked a numerous flight of ravens, who all hovered over the same spot, skimming continually along the ground. The regular direction of their flight led us to suspect that some prey attracted them. These birds were in reality pursuing a sable. We perceived it upon a birch-tree, surrounded by another flight of ravens, and we had immediately a similar desire of taking it. The quickest and surest way would doubtless have been to have shot it; but our guns were at the village, and it was impossible to borrow one of the persons who accompanied us, or indeed in the whole neighbourhood. A Kamtschadale happily drew us from our embarassment, by undertaking to catch the sable. He adopted the following method. He asked us for a cord; we had none to give him but that which fastened our horses. While he was making a running knot, some dogs, trained to this chace, had surrounded the tree: the animal, intent upon watching them, either from fear, or natural stupidity, did not stir; and contented himself with stretching out his neck, when the cord was presented to him. His head was twice in the noose, but the knot slipped. At length, the sable having thrown himself upon the ground, the dogs flew to seize him; but he presently freed himself, and with his claws and teeth laid hold of the nose of one of the dogs, who had no reason to be pleased with his reception. As we were desirous of taking the animal alive, we kept back the dogs; the sable quitted immediately his hold, and ran up a tree, where, for the third time, the noose, which had been tied anew, was presented to him; it was not till the fourth attempt that the Kamtschadale succeeded[26]. I could not have imagined that an animal, who has so much the appearance of cunning would have permitted himself to be caught in so stupid a manner, and would himself have placed his head in the snare that was held up to him. This easy mode of catching sables, is a considerable resource to the Kamtschadales, who are obliged to pay their tribute in skins of these animals, as I shall explain hereafter[27].
Two phenomena in the heavens were observed at the north-west, during the nights of the 13 and 14. From the description that was given of them, we judged that they were auroræ boreales, and we lamented that we were not informed time enough to see them. The weather had been tolerably fair during our stay at the baths; but the western part of the sky had been almost constantly charged with very thick clouds. The wind varied from west to north-west, and gave us now and then a shower of snow, which did not yet acquire consistency, notwithstanding the frosts which we experienced every night.
Our departure was fixed for the 17 October, and the 16 was spent in the hurry and bustle which the last preparations generally occasion. The rest of our route, as far as Bolcheretsk, was to be upon the Bolchaïa-reka. Ten small boats, which properly speaking, appeared to be merely trees scooped out in the shape of canoes, two and two lashed together, served as five floats for the conveyance of ourselves and part of our effects. We were obliged to leave the greater part at Natchikin, on account of the impossibility of loading these floats with the whole, and there were no means of increasing them. We had already collected all the canoes that were in the village, and even some of our ten had been brought from the ostrog of Apatchin, to which we were going.
The 17, at break of day, we embarked upon these floats. Four Kamtschadales, by means of long poles, conducted our rafts. But they were frequently obliged to place themselves in the water, in order to haul them along; the depth of the river in some places being no more than one or two feet, and in others less than six inches. Presently one of our floats received an injury; it was precisely that which was freighted with our baggage, and we were obliged to unlade every thing upon the bank, in order to refit it. We waited not, but preferred leaving it behind, in order to proceed on our route. At noon another accident, much more deplorable for men whose appetites began to be clamorous, occasioned us a further delay. The float in which our cookery was embarked, sunk all at once before our eyes. It will be supposed we did not see the loss which threatened us, with indifference; we were eager to save the wreck of our provisions; and for fear of a greater misfortune, we wisely resolved to dine before we proceeded any farther. Our dinner tended gradually to dispel our fears, and gave us courage to discharge the water which over-loaded our boats, and to resume our voyage. We had not advanced a werst, before we met two boats coming to our assistance from Apatchin. We sent them to the succour of the damaged float, and to supply the place of the boats which were unfit for service. As we continued to advance at the head of our embarkations, we at last entirely lost sight of them; but we met with nothing disastrous till the evening.
I observed that the Bolchaïa-reka, in the windings which it continually made, ran nearly in the direction of east-north-east and west-south-west. Its current is very rapid; it appeared to me to flow at the rate of five knots an hour; in the meantime the stones and the shoals which we met with every instant, obstructed our passage to such a degree, as to render the last hour of our conductors truly painful. They avoided them with astonishing address, but as we approached nearer the mouth of the river, I observed with pleasure that it became wider and more navigable. I was equally surprised to see it divide into I know not how many branches, which united again, after having watered a variety of little islands, of which some are covered with wood. The trees are every where very small and very bushy; we met with a considerable number growing here and there in the very river itself, which increase still farther the difficulty of the navigation, and prove the carelessness, I may say the sloth, of these people. It never occurs to them to root out these trees, and thus open a more easy passage.
Different species of water-fowl, such as ducks, plovers, goëlands, divers, and others, divert themselves in this river, the surface of which is sometimes covered by them; but it is difficult to approach near enough to shoot them. Game does not appear to be so common. But for the tracks of the bears, and the half-devoured fish, which continually presented themselves to our view, I should have believed that they had imposed upon me, or at least that they had exaggerated, in telling me of the multitude of these animals with which the country abounds; we could perceive none; but we saw a great number of black eagles, and others that had white wings; magpies, ravens, some partridges, and an ermine walking by the side of the river.
Upon the approach of night, M. Kasloff rightly judged that it would be more prudent to stop, than to continue our route, with the apprehension of encountering obstacles similar to what had already impeded our navigation. How were we to surmount them? we were unacquainted with the river; and in the obscurity of the night, the least accident might prove fatal to us. These considerations determined us to leave our boats, and to pass the night on the right-hand bank of the river, at the entrance of a wood, and near the place where captain King and his party halted[28]. A good fire warmed and dried our whole company. M. Kasloff had taken the precaution to place in his float the accoutrements of a tent; and while we were pitching it, which was done in a moment, we had the satisfaction to see two of our floats arrive, which had not been able to keep up with us. The pleasure which this reunion afforded us, the fatigue of the day, the convenience of the tent, and our beds, which we had fortunately brought with us, all contributed to make us pass a most comfortable night.
The next day we fitted ourselves out early and without difficulty. We arrived in four hours at Apatchin, but our floats could not come up as far as the village, on account of the shallowness of the water. We landed about four hundred yards from the ostrog, and atchieved this short distance on foot.
This village did not appear to me so considerable as the preceding ones, that is, it contained perhaps three or four habitations less. It is situated in a small plain, watered by a branch of the Bolchaïa-reka; and on the side opposite to the ostrog is an extent of wood, which I conceived might be an island formed by the different branches of this river.
I learned by the way, that the ostrog of Apatchin, as well as that of Natchikin, had not been always where they are at present. It is within a few years only that the inhabitants, attracted without doubt by the situation, or the hope of better and more commodious fishing, removed their houses to this place. The distance of the new ostrog from the former one is, as I was told, about four or five wersts.
Apatchin afforded nothing interesting. I left it to join our floats, which had passed the shallows, and were waiting for us three wersts from the ostrog, at the spot where the branch of Bolchaïa-reka, after having made a circuit