330 First Russiivi Embassy to Japan. 



the circumference of which is estimated at six versts. It 

 consists for the most part of granite rock, produces neither 

 trees nor bushes, and seems to be inhabited only by sea^ 

 gulls and other aquatic birds. 



On the 26th, after keeping some time on the same 

 course, our navigators came m sight of the 1 Qth of the 

 Kunle Islands, named Itarop*, along the coast of which 

 they proceeded towards the south-west. 



On the 28th of September they saw a small peak like a 

 sugar-loaf, the summit of which was covered with snow, 

 and which formed the northern extremity of the 20th 

 island, named Kunaschiri. 



Till the 6th of October they stood off and on along the 

 series of islands, and passing through the strait between 

 the 19th and 20th island, keeping in the same direction as 

 the eastern shore of the latter, came to anchor in a harbour 

 at the south end of it. The ground however was so soft, 

 that they were soon obliged to heave up again, and to con- 

 tinue their voyage till the next day, when they found good 

 anchorage at about the distance of seven versts from the 

 northern shore of the 22d island f. A boat was here dis-? 

 patched with thirteen men, to search out a harbour proper 

 for wintering in. The natives, as soon as they saw the 

 ship, left their summer habitations on the coast, and re- 

 tired to the interior parts of the island. The boat's crew, 

 however, at length, found some of them 5 and by means of 

 M. Schebalin, a merchant of Irkutsk, who understood 

 their language, a friendly intercourse was opened, and some 

 fresh fish were procured from them in exchange for to- 

 bacco, on which they seemed to set great value. Satisfied 

 with this introduction, the crew towards night returned to 

 their ship. On the day following, October 8th, a boat was 

 dispatched to another settlement, pointed out by the nar 

 tives the day before, and named Nischpaz, from the name 

 of a rivulet, at the mouth of which it is situated, and 

 where the crew were received by a great number of Kuri- 

 lians and Japanese. The latter resided here only for the 

 purpose of collecting the duties on the merchandise sold by 

 the Kurilians to the subjects of Japan. They informed 

 them that at the southern extremity of the island there was 

 a spacious and secure harbour named Atkis:}:; but as the 

 approach to it was dangerous on account of numerous 



* In the best Russian maps it is called Atorpu or Atorku. 



f Th-tt is the Island of iVIarmai. 



% Atkis lies oa tae north-c^t coast of the island. 



shoals 



