Mr. Edward AniohVs Aiituuiii Aniioioiceinents. 5 



without intention of firing at them. Spotted deer, wild buflFaloes, 

 mountain goats, sambhar, bears, and panthers, are the subject of 

 endless yarns, in the relation of which innumerable useful hints, 

 often the result of failure and even disasters, are given. The author, 

 moreover, from the nature of his calling, is deeply impregnated with 

 the natural history and love of the forests and their inhabitants— in 

 fact, he possesses the power of holding up a mirror, as it were, in 

 which his reader can observe the whole life of the forest reflected. 



Of his professional life the author gives some most interesting 

 particulars, and reveals to the uninitiated what a many-sided career 

 is that of a Conservator of Indian Forests, whose life is spent in 

 assisting Nature to yield her harvest of woody growth. 



IN FORBIDDEN SEAS. 



IRccoUectione of ScasOttcv 1F3untinci in tbc Hauils, 

 By H. J. SNOW, F.R.G.S., 



Author ok 'Noies on the Kukii. Islands.' 



Illustrated. Demy ^vo. 12s. 6d. net. 



The Author of this interesting book has had an experience probably 

 unique in an almost unknown part of the world. The stormy wind- 

 swept and fog-bound regions of the Kuril Islands, between Japan 

 and Kamchatka, have rarely been visited save by the adventurous 

 hunters of the sea-otter, and the animal is now becoming so scarce 

 that the hazardous occupation of these bold voyagers is no longer 

 profitable. For many years, from 1873 to 1888, Captain Snow 

 persevered — years of varying success, sometimes fraught with an 

 ample return, but more often ending in disaster and shipwreck. The 

 list of vessels engaged in the business over a lengthy period, which 

 Captain Snow has compiled, shows that scarcely a single one 

 escaped a violent end, and the loss of life among their crews was 

 enormous. Hunting the sea-otter was indeed just the sort of 

 speculative venture in which bold and restless spirits are always 

 tempted to engage. In a lucky season the prizes were very great, 

 for the value of the furs was immense. The attendant dangers were 

 also great — -your vessel was always liable to shipwreck ; your boats, 

 in which the actual hunting was done, might be swamped in an 

 open sea at a moment's notice ; the natives were frecjuently hostile, 

 and there was always a risk of your whole venture ending in the 

 confiscation of ship and cargo by Russian or Japanese orders, and 

 the incarceration of yourself and company as ' trespassers.' 



Captain Snow, who is a Back Prizeman of the Royal Cieographical 

 Society, made the charts of the Kuril Islands which are used by the 

 British Admiralty, and before plunging into his own adventures he 

 gives two excellent chapters on the islands and their inhabitants, 

 the Ainu. 



A valuable description of the sea-otter, and its place in natural 

 history and commerce, are found in Appendices. 



