246 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



last great southerly migration of the rich polar flora Japan received her portion 

 mostly through the island of Saghalin, and but little, if any, through the then 

 uncompleted chain of the Kuril Islands." 



2. THE ROOKERY ISLANDS. 



(Plate 105.) 



Eumors and yarns of returning sealers, some of whom had never set foot on the 

 Kuril Islands, having been given credence, there is hardly an island in the Kuril 

 chain that has not been set down as possessing a fur-seal rookery. A few seals may 

 have been found hauled out on some of the other islands, as for instance the three 

 or four seals which Captain Petersen, of the Diana, found on the southern Chirnoi 

 Island, near its northern point,' about the year 1888, or may have been killed in the 

 water near some rock or island, as the 60 alleged to have been taken by the Diana 

 at Avos (Jap. Fish. Bur. Eep., 1894, p. 202), but it is now certain there that is no 

 authentic record of breeding seals on more than four islands, the number on one of 

 which, however, being so small as to be hardly worthy of the name rookery. The 

 latter island is Makanruru or Broughton Island, in the southern group ; the other 

 three are Sea Lion Eock or Plat Eock, one of the Srednoi Eocks, Eaikoke Island, and 

 Seal Eock of the Mushirs, all situated in the Middle Kurils.' 



MUSHIE KOCKS. (Plate 106.) 



The Mushirs, described by Pallas in 1783 as Mussyr, or Egakto (I'I'eue l^ord. 

 Beitr., iv, p. 123), a cluster of four small rocks, were rediscovered in 1805 by Von 

 Krusenstern, in the Eussian frigate Nadezhda, and were named "The Snares" by Mm 

 on account of the dangerous currents with which they are beset. 



They are situated approximately in 48° 37' north latitude, and 153° 47' east longi- 

 tude, about 13 miles distant from Shiashkotan, the nearest island to the northward, 

 and 32 miles from Eaikoke, which is in a southwesterly direction. The greatest 

 distance between any two of the rocks is a little over a mile,^ while the two nearest to 

 each other are less than a third of a mile apart. 



The four separate rocks of which the group consists have been named Seal Eock, 

 Long Eock, High Eock, and Low Eock. 



Low Eock, as the names implies, is a small rock about 20 feet out of the water. 

 It is bare of all vegetation save seaweeds, and when I visited the group a few sea lions 

 had taken possession of it. 



High Eock (pi. 80) is a large mass of basaltic columns rising nearly perpendicu- 

 larly out of the sea to a height of about 120 feet. It is split completely in two at the 

 middle, and in the cleft between the precipitous cliffs a chimney-like pinnacle stands 



' For tUe sake of completenesa I have added the plan of the Chirnoi Islands, by Snow, and an 

 outline sketch of them hy Mr. Kitahara (pi. 13), taken from his report of a cruise in the Knrils in 1895. 

 (Rep. Jap. Fish. Bur., 1895). A single seal -was taken by the Junten Maru off Chirnoi, on August 23, 

 1896, according to the official report to the .lapanese fisheries bureau. 



2 S. L. Beckwith's statement that he "remembers that there was a seal rookery on Ketoi Island" 

 (pi. 86) "about 1873 or 1874" is unsupported by other evidence. (Fur Seal Arb. vin, p. 581.) 



3 In the Japanese copy of Captain Snow's Kuril Island plans (Jap. Hydr. Off., No. 343), the scale of 

 the plan of the Mushir Bocks is erroneously given in miles instead of cables. 



