YESSO. 1 7 



and from then until the beginning of November, when 

 the fishing ceases, 6000 tons of salmon are caught and 

 salted on this few miles of river.^ There are many- 

 fabulous stories regarding the quantity of fish that go 

 up the rivers, — that their backs are visible, and that 

 the water rises along the banks as the first rush takes 

 place over the bar at high tide. I believe, however, 

 that there is no doubt about the quantity being correct 

 which I have mentioned as being caught and cured in 

 the short space of time given. 



Eegarding the agricultural prospects of this south- 

 west part of Yesso, owing to the average moderate tem- 

 perature, I think almost anything would grow well ; but 

 as to the eastern parts of the island, on account of the 



■ This appears an extraordinary quantity of salmon to be caught 

 in such a short time, and in a very limited extent of a single river ; 

 but I took great pains to ascertain the correctness of my state- 

 ment. It is the only river in Yesso that is systematically worked, 

 and actually supplies the whole of Japan with this fish. Not a 

 village that I ever went through, either in the north or south, was 

 at any season of the year without its salted salmon. It is 

 universally a great article of food. When I was at anchor survey- 

 ing Oteranai, the port from which the Iskari fish are shipped, I 

 counted one day more than two hundred large junks start in a 

 body for southern ports, all laden with salmon. A hundred and 

 more junks remained at anchor waiting for their cargo. This alone 

 bore out the enormous amount of fish that are taken. It must also 

 be remembered that the fleet of junks I thus counted was only a 

 single start, and that many more of such magnitude take place in 

 the season. 



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