80 NOTES ON TEE KURIL ISLANDS. 



Bird Islands or Rocks, 3 miles east of Cape Levasheff, are 

 three small islets named Ganimushir, Kotanimushir, and Chiri- 

 mushir. They lie in a crescent form, opening towards the south- 

 east. Ganimushir, the southernmost, is, in its main part, about 

 100 feet high, and somewhat dome-shaped. From the high part it 

 runs out low and flat in a southerly direction, terminating in a 

 narrow high rock, which from a distance appears to be separated 

 from the main part. 



About a mile south of this islet there is a large field of kelp, in 

 which there are some blind breakers. Between this shoal and the 

 islet there is from 9 to 10 fathoms of water. From the northern 

 side of Ganimushir a kelp-covered reef extends to Kotanimushir, 

 the northernmost islet, about half a mile distant. Between this 

 islet and Chirimushir, the eastern islet, there is also a reef. These 

 two islets are not quite so high as the southern one. They are 

 partly covered with grass, and are the breeding-places of innumer- 

 able sea-fowl, guillemots, puffins, auks, fulmars, gulls, and shags 

 being the most plentiful. Sometimes a sea-otter is seen here, and 

 there are always leopard seals. Codfish and halibut are abundant 

 in the vicinity. 



KoKSKAR Rock, lying 6 miles east-north-east from the Bird 

 Islands, is a long irregular mass of black -looking rock, some 15 or 

 20 feet above water. It is used as a breeding-place by sea-lions. 

 The water is to within a short distance of the rock. 



Shumshir, the last of the Kuril chain of islands, is 89 square 

 miles in extent. It is about 14 miles in length north and south, 

 and 11 broad east and west at its widest part. 



Inasmuch as it has no mountains, it is unlike any other of the 

 Kuril Islands. Its principal features are undulating hills and 

 swampy valleys, with a growth of scrub, pine, alder, grasses, 

 mosses, etc. The highest part of the island is on its northern side, 

 where it reaches an elevation of about 580 feet. 



In the north-western part, about a mile back from the coast> 

 there is a fair-sized shallow lake, from which a stream flows into 

 the sea. On the bank of tliis stream, amongst some sandhills, 

 there is a deserted village of some twenty or thirty dwellings, 

 around some of which small patches of ground have been roughly 

 fenced in and cultivated. About 3 miles to the south-west, in 

 Mairuppo Bay, Little Kuril Strait, is another old settlement. 



