66 THE ASIATIC PUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



This change has shortened the drive from the rookeries west of Pestshaui Mys 

 from 2^ to 1| miles. In addition, there is now only one pass to climb, which my aneroid 

 showed to be about 740 feet above the sea. The ascent is not very steep nor is the 

 road particularly rough, but the final descent to the salt house is simply a " slide." 

 On the whole, it is now the easiest of the long drives at Glinka. This, of course, does 

 not mean that the drive is an easy one, and only a fraction of all the seals driven (in 

 1895 about one sixth) gets the benefit from it. 



The Ulling grounds are located on the grassy slope near the beach, just north of 

 the Pestshani salt house. The killing grounds at the Glinka village used to be beyond 

 the houses, but are now moved to near the beach, a few hundred yards north of the 

 village. In the latter there are two salt houses close together. One of these has had 

 an addition built to it, so that it is now twice its original capacity (pis. 35, 36). 



The map of the Glinka rookeries (pi. 101) is the result of a traverse plane table 

 survey made during the few intervals from August 4 to 11, 1895, in which the rookeries 

 were free from fog or rain. It was very diflflcult to find a level locality long enough 

 for a suitable base line. After the map was completed, however, I measured off a line 

 1,000 feet long on the beach in front of the village and sighted it in on the map. 



I had with me a sketch map which I had drawn from sketches and angles obtained 

 in 1883. It was found fairly accurate, especially considering the fact that the fog 

 during my visit in 1883 was so perverse that 1 never obtained a simultaneous sight of 

 both sides of the island. 



2.-R0BBEN ISLAND. 

 DESCRIPTION. 



Eobben' Island, the literal German or probably rather Dutch'' equivalent of its 

 Eussian name, Tiuleni Ostrof, meaning seal island, is situated in the Okhotsk Sea, 11 

 miles southwest from Cape Patience {Mys Terpenia), the end of the curiously long and 

 narrow peninsula on the eastern shore of Saghalin Island. The position is now given 

 as 48° 31' 30" north latitude and 144° 43' 48" east longitude, as determined by Gapt. 

 John G. Blair.3 



The following description is based upon the account given in the former edition 

 of this work, with such additions and corrections as I was able to make during my 

 visit in 1896. The accompanying maps (pi. 93) are copied, with modifications and 

 corrections, from recent plans issued by the Russian hydrographic office. 



The island is really hardly more than a large, flat-topped rock, trending northeast 

 by southwest, long and narrow. The entire length in that direction is about 1,900 

 feet, while the elevated portion, which rises abruptly to between 40 and 60 feet and 

 tapers off to a point at both ends, measures only 1,200 feet in length. The width of 



'Not Robbin Island or Robin Island, as it is occasionally written. 



^The name Robben Island was probably first used by sealers — or whalers — who had learned their 

 trade in the southern hemisphere (cf. Robben Island, at the Cape of Good Hope, off False Bay), in 

 which case the Russian name is more likely to be the translation than vice versa. 



^Lieutenant Kolubakin, I. R. N., in charge of the island, 1896, informed me that his observations 

 corroborate the position given by Blair. 



