shore, and were here promised a 30-foot sloop
by the company. We added to our equipment two native baidarkas for
hunting and a bear dog belonging to an old Russian hunter, Walter
Matroken. Tchort (Russian for Devil) looked like a cross between a water
spaniel and a Newfoundland, and though old and poorly supplied with
teeth, many of which he had lost during his acquaintance with bears, he
proved a good companion, game in emergencies, and a splendid retriever.

Our rifle and camera batteries were as follows:

Merriam had a.45-70 and a.50-110 Winchester, both shooting half-jacketed
bullets. My rifles were a.30-40 Winchester, a double .577, and a
double .40-93-400, kindly lent me by Mr. S.D. Warren, of Boston, and on
which I relied. Besides the pocket cameras and a small Goerz, I carried
one camera with double lenses of 17-1/2-inch focus, and one with single
lense of 30-inch focus. The last two were, of course, intended for
animals at long range.

Hoping to prove something in regard to the weight of the Kadiak bear, I
brought a pair of Fairbanks spring scales, weighing up to 300 pounds,
and some water-tight canvas bags for weighing blood and the viscera.

We selected two good men as hunters for the trip, Vacille and Klampe.

On the second day out from Wood Island a storm came on, and though the
Maksoutoff was staunch, we could not hold for our port, owing to the
exposed coast, where squalls come sweeping without warning from the
mountain tops, driving the snow down like smoke, the so-called
"wollies." It was wild and wintry enough when we turned into the
sheltered protection of Steragowan Harbor.

A few mallards and a goose were here added to the ship's store next
morning from the flats, and the weather clearing, we made Kaguiac, and
found our sloop in good condition. In addition we took along an otter
boat, a large rowboat, from here, as our baidarkas proved rather
unseaworthy. Besides Mr. Heitman, the fur company's man, there was one
other white settler in Kaguiac named Walch, who came to Kadiak
twenty-seven years ago at the time of the first American military
occupation, and though he had served in many an exciting battle in the
Civil War, the Kadiak calm appealed to him. He married, settled down
among the natives contentedly, and has never moved since. This,
curiously, is the case of many men who come to the North, after leading
wandering and adventurous lives.

Unfavorable winds at Kaguiac delayed our sailing,