EARLY CONDITIONS ON THE KURILS. 251 



north latitude and 150° 36' east longitude, about llj miles from Chirnoi Island, 30 

 miles from XJrup, and 35 miles from Simusir. 



In size, general outline, and height it bears a close resemblance to Eaikoke, as 

 an inspection of the accompanying plan and illustration (pi. 108) will show, but beyond 

 this the writer is unable to give more detailed information, as he did not have a chance 

 to visit this island. From Mr. Kitahara's report (Eep. Jap. Fish. Bur., 1896, p. 145) 

 it appears, however, that the few breeding seals which have been found there were 

 located on the northern shore at a place which he describes as the largest area on the 

 Kuril seal rocks fit for the purpose, the area being " about 60 meters square." Eg-rly 

 in August, 1895, the Third Ghishima Maru found there 3 males, 3 females, and 3 pups, 

 and it was probably in this same place that Snow got his skins in 1893. 



I am not aware that there are any records or indications of former human 

 habitation on Makanruru. 



Captain Snow (Notes Kuril Islands, 1897, p. 64) describes the island as rugged 

 and dome-shaped, 2,900 feet high. Inaccessible cliffs, some of which are over 1,000 

 feet high, extend all around the island. Here and there beneath the cliffs are narrow 

 margins of bowldery or pebbly beach. On the northwest side there are some rocky 

 heights and also some rugged patches of rocks, the largest of which is used as a 

 breeding rookery by vast numbers of sea lions. 



The accompanying plan of Makanruru Island (pi. 108) is a copy of Captain Snow's 

 sketch and the outline view is from Mr. Kitahara's report cited above. 



3. HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 

 EARLY CONDITIONS. 



The occurrence of fur seals on the Kuril Islands was known to the early Eussian 

 explorers, but I am not aware that any of the records contain references to breeding 

 rookeries on these islands. It is not probable that even the old Eussian-American 

 Company, which in 1826 located a colony of Kadiak Aleuts on the Kurlls to hunt the 

 fur-bearing animals (see my Eussian Fur-Seal Islands, p. 26, antea, p. 36) knew of the 

 existence of any rookeries, much less exploited them. Certain it is tbat the Japanese 

 Government when, in 1875, it took over the Kuril Islands from Eussia in exchange 

 for southern Sakhalin had no idea that fur-seal rookeries were a part of their new 

 possessions. It is clear beyond a doubt that the entire report which the Japanese 

 Government submitted to the British Bering Sea commissioners in 1891 (published 

 as "Memorandum on the Seal Fisheries in Japan," Eep. Brit. Behr. Sea Comm., pp. 

 160-164; Fur Seal Arb., vr, pp. 228-233), upon which the latter framed an elaborate 

 account of the early sealing industry in Japan (Eep., pp. 85-87; F. S. Arb., yi, pp. 

 131, 132), relates almost exclusively, except the last paragraph, to the sea otter, and 

 not to the fur seal at all. 



Under these circumstances it is hardly to be wondered at tbat when the news of 

 the raids on the Kuril rookeries in the early eighties gradually leaked out there were 

 people willing to theorize and to believe that these rookeries were new formations, 

 being established, it was surmised, by Commander Islands seals which had been 

 disturbed by the wholesale killing on the latter islands, and consequently had retired 

 to the quiet resorts of the foggy Kurils. These theorists never stopped to reflect 

 that the Commander Islands rookeries were actually increasing at the very time the 



