88 NOTES ON THE KURIL ISLANDS. 



Salmon and salmon-trout fishing is pretty vigorously prosecuted on Yetorup 

 and Kunashir. Immense quantities are taken, roughly salted, and shipped to the 

 south. A salmon-canning factory has been established at Shana. Some codfish 

 are caught at Yetorup, but not in large numbers, nearly all attention being given 

 to the capture of salmon and salmon-trout. 



On Kunashir and the Yezo coast immense quantities of herring and iwashi 

 (a kind of sardine) are taken, but not for food. Hundreds of tons of these fish are 

 caught and boiled down for their oil and refuse. The oil is sold to foreigners and 

 shipped abroad, and the refuse, called kasu, is sent to the south and sold as a 

 fertilizer. Halibut, rock-cod, sea-robins, flounders, smelts, etc., are plentiful, but 

 they are almost entirely neglected. During some seasons one or two streams on 

 Urup are fished for salmon-trout. 



Practically speaking, there are no fish on the Kuril Islands between Urup and 

 Onekotan. Off Paramusbir and Shumshir there are valuable cod-banks, halibut 

 and other fish are plentiful, and the streams contain salmon and trout. These 

 islands, however, have hitherto been quite neglected. 



Although the sealing and sea-otter hunting on the Kurils are practically no 

 longer worth considering, there are several other industries which could be inaugu- 

 rated, and which, if properly conducted, would yield large profits. 



