﻿NO. 5 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, ig22 



39 



Malaise, a well-known entomologist, was met here and some of his 

 interesting collections were examined. 



The next objective of the Mojavc expedition was an inspection of 

 the Japanese fur seal island off the eastern coast of Sakhalin in 

 Okhotsk Sea, usually known as Robben Island. 



On August 13, the Mojave passed the Kuril chain through Amphi- 

 trite Strait but on account of fog did not anchor off Robben Island 

 until the 15th in the evening. The party was there met by three 

 Japanese officials of the Karafuto provincial government who with 

 the greatest liberality placed all the desired information and statistics 

 at the disposition of the American investigators. Robben Island is 



Fig. 44. — Robben Island, Okhotsk Sea. Part of fur-seal rookery. Breeding 

 place of innumerable murres. (Photograph by L. Stejneger.) 



a small, elongated, flat-topped rock, nowhere higher than 50 feet, only 

 1,200 feet long and less than 120 feet wide, surrounded by a narrow 

 gravelly beach 30 to 120 feet wide, on which the rookery is located. A 

 couple of low houses for the sealing crew, which is stationed here dur- 

 ing the summer season, are located on the western slope. When Stej- 

 neger visited and photographed the rookery in 1896 the seals occupied 

 a small spot on the east side. Since the Japanese took over the island 

 from the Russians in 1905, the number of fur seals has gradually 

 increased until now the animals not only occupy the entire eastern 

 beach but are extending the rookery at both ends on to the west side 

 of the island. The Japanese have closely followed the methods em- 

 ployed in managing the American seal herd on the Pribilof Islands, 

 and the result has been equally gratifying. The history of the sealing 



