6 YESSO. 



impenetrable forest, growing on a succession of low hills, 

 the small valleys between being swampy, and thickly 

 covered with rushes, alder, and stunted birch. I shot a 

 couple of spruce grouse, the only birds of the kind 

 I ever saw, not only in Yesso, but anywhere in the 

 East. 



I left a party of officers and men to survey the 

 locality, and went on to the eastward, reaching Hama- 

 naka, an anchorage, the same evening. A couple of 

 islands, lying off a deep bend of the coast-line, form 

 this harbour. Here we found another small settlement 

 of Japanese, with about double their number of Ainos. 

 Seaweed collecting, as at Akishi, was their business. 

 Long rank grass covered the islands, with a few stunted, 

 straggling fir-trees. The creeks and sheltered nooks 

 about the rocky shores were swarming with duck. 

 Foxes walked about quite at home and fearlessly. 

 Seals played and fished in the quiet pools, under the 

 cliffs, and seagulls in large numbers revelled in perfect 

 security on the long sandy beach which stretched away 

 to the westward from both islands. On two grass- 

 covered rocky points of the biggest island I found eagles 

 breeding ; both nests had a single young one, and in one 

 was an egg. I sat down close to the nest with the mag- 

 nificent old birds wheeling round my head, the female 

 only a few yards off, but the male kept at a safe distance. 



