DESCRIPTION OF EACH ISLAND AND THE STB AITS. 81 



There are many small streams of good water, in some of which, 

 and also in the lake, in July and August, salmon-trout are 

 plentiful. 



The north-west coast of Shumshir, between Cape Pervi and 

 Cape Chaconchi, forms a broad bay — known as Cod Bay — G miles 

 across. The capes are rocky, and extending off the first-named 

 for nearly a mile in a north-easterly direction there is a reef with 

 kelp upon it. The shores of the bay are backed by low sandhills, 

 the beach being sandy. Cod Bay offers a fair anchorage in from 

 10 to 15 fathoms with sandy soundings. Elsewhere the coast of 

 Shumshir terminates mostly in low cliffs, the points and capes 

 being steep and rocky, whilst the heads of the bights generally 

 have sandy beaches, with sloping grass-grown cliffs at their backs. 



The east coast can with safety be approached anywhere within 

 a mile or less. Much kelp grows here. Fish may be caught 

 almost anywhere off the coast. A few sea-otters are to be found, 

 and leopard seals are numerous. 



Foxes are plentiful, and there are a few bears. In places the 

 ground is honeycombed by the small rodent already mentioned as 

 being found on Onekotan and Paramushir. Ptarmigan, a few 

 snipe, plover, and shore- birds are to be found. Swans, geese, 

 ducks, divers, and other water-fowl are met with on the lake and 

 streams. 



KuEiL Stkait, separating Shumshir from Kamchatka, is 7 

 miles wide, but its navigable channel is narrowed to about half 

 that distance by a dangerous reef, which extends from Cape 

 Lopatka, the south point of Kamchatka, in a north-westerly 

 direction for about 9 miles. At that distance from the cape, on 

 the end of the reef, there is but 3 fathoms of water. Off the 

 north-east point of Shumshir a reef makes out a short distance, 

 and there is another off the next point to the southward, extending 

 in a semicircular form partly across the bay between the two 

 points. This reef is under water, and only shows when there is a 

 swell or heavy sea. Nearly the whole of the Lopatka reef is also 

 under water, there being but one or two rocks awash. 



A line of soundings from north-east Cape Shumshir to Cape 

 Lopatka, which lie nearly east and west of each other, showed from 

 8 to 17 in mid-channel to 7 fathoms off Cape Lopatka, approaching 

 to within less than a mile off both capes. 



G 



