8 YESSO. 



settlement, with the usual number of Ainos collected 

 round them. The settlements, although close together, 

 are always distinct from each other. The Japanese 

 despise and keep in most strict subjection and ignor- 

 ance the unfortunate Ainos, who do by far the greatest 

 portion of the work which these settlements are formed 

 for, collecting seaweed, fish, or deers' horns. They receive 

 no pay in money, but are allowed a, certain amount of 

 rice and tea, and some cotton stuff for clothing. 



To the eastward of Cape Noyshap several islands 

 extend out twenty miles from the mainland of Yesso. 

 They are the undisturbed homes of albatross, seals, divers, 

 and numbers of waders, none being inhabited by man. 



It was the middle of May when we reached Nemero, 

 but the weather was still wintry. Snow, lay about in 

 heaps, and on the 1 9th a heavy fall took place, covering 

 the country to a depth of nine inches. On the 24th, 

 immense masses of floating ice appeared in the straits 

 between Yesso and Kunashir, the southernmost of the 

 Kuril Islands. On the 1st of June the mountain range 

 running to the north-east was white, and at the water's 

 edge snow still lay here and there in patches. The 

 temperature of the water at the surface and bottom was 

 only 36°-5. Gales from the eastward were constant, 

 and dense fogs very prevalent. Such was the weather 

 at the beginning of June in the eastern part of the 



