64 NOTES ON THE KURIL ISLANDS. 



formed by two narrow points which reach out nearly a mile. 

 Anchorage in 13 fathoms with a sandy bottom can be got here. 



There is no water fit for drinking purposes. On the northern 

 beach is some driftwood. 



Besides sea-lions and sea-otters, there are a few leopard 

 seals about. There are no land-animals. The land-birds are con- 

 lined to a few ravens, peregrine falcons, wagtails, and wrens. 

 Auks, puffins, guillemots, gulls, fulmars, and shags are very plentiful. 

 No tish are to be got here. 



Makanruru, or Broughton Island, lying 10 miles north-north- 

 west of the Black Brothers, is roundish in form, about 5 miles in 

 circumference, with an area of about 2 square miles. It is a rugged 

 dome-shaped island, 2900 feet high. Inaccessible clitfs, some of 

 which are over 1000 feet high, extend all round the island. 

 Here and there beneath the cliffs are narrow margins of bouldery 

 or pebbly beach. On the north-west side there are some rocky 

 bights, and also some rugged patches of rocks, the largest of which 

 is used as a breeding rookery by vast numbers of sea-lions. 

 There arc some pumiceous rocks off the south-east side. The water 

 is deep to close in to the shore. 



Sea-fowl common to the other islands are plentiful. The land- 

 birds I have noticed were ravens, falcons, wagtails, and wrens. 

 Besides sea-lions, a few leopard seals and an occasional sea-otter 

 are to be met with. 



Like the rest, the island is volcanic, but it has been long 

 extinct, and is now, except in the highest portions, green with short 

 vcGfetation. 



The BoussoLE Channel, Ijnng between the last-mentioned small 

 islands and Simushir, is the widest of all the straits of the Kuril 

 Islands. It has deep water throughout, and is free from all dangers. 

 The distance across between the Black Brothers and the south- 

 west end of Simushir is about 'S2 miles. 



Simushir is 33 miles long, and from 2 to 8 wide. Its area is 

 120 square miles. From a distance, looking towards the north- 

 west, this island is seen to have at its south-west end a high 

 volcanic mass, which has been named Milne Mountains, showing 

 two peaks which reach a height of 5650 feet. Next comes a low 

 narrow neck of land joining this part to a ridge of hills which 

 gradually rise to a round-topped mountain 2300 feet high. This is 



