94 



HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



on the other side of the strait, for the distance from one 

 island to the other, as marked on the chart, must be about 

 twenty miles. Four times within an hour was the windlass 

 manned, but each time the wind fell as suddenly as it rose, 

 and twice more was the anchor off the ground, only to 

 be dropped as quickly, the slight gusts carrying us but a 

 few lengths from our dangerous position. At last the 

 breeze came down stiff and steady from the north-west, 

 and with everything set we ran before it, the schooner 

 burying her nose in the seas and covering the deck with 

 foam and spray. By ten o'clock it was blowing a gale, 

 and at two a.m. when all but the watch turned in, having 

 gained a good offing, we were jogging along under foresail, 

 staysail, and jib on a south-westerly course, heading in the 

 direction of Hitokatpu Bay. 



Yetorup Strait, or as it was named in the old charts 

 Vries Strait, is, as already stated, nineteen miles across 

 from Cape Okabets to Cape Nobunots on Urup Island ; it 

 is sometimes blocked with ice during the spring. 



Urup is sixty miles long with an average width of six 

 miles and is the fourth largest of the Kuriles. It is quite 

 uninhabited except during the summer, and then only by a 

 few fishermen. About half way up the south-east or Pacific 

 side is a tiny basin-like harbour where the Russian Ameri- 

 can Company established a factory in 1795. It has a depth 

 of eight or ten fathoms, but a heavy swell rolls in with an 

 easterly wind. 



There are four principal mountain groups separated from 

 each other, as in Yetorup, by lower and narrower land, and 

 varying in height from 2700 feet to 4150 feet. The north- 

 west coast is the more mountainous side, terminating mostly 

 in perpendicular cliffs dropping sheer into the sea. The 

 Pacific side is much less bold though rocky and precipitous, 

 without any sufficient indentation to be called a harbour, 

 although there are three bays on the Okhotsk side. 



The north-east end of the island terminates in a long, 

 flat narrow strip of land about one hundred feet in height, 



