Mr. Edward Arnold’s Autumn Announcements. 5 
endless yarns, in the relation of which innumerable useful hints, 
often the result of failure and even disasters, are given. The author, 
moreover, from the nature of his calling, is deeply impregnated with 
the natural history and love of the forests and their inhabitants—in 
fact, he posesses the power of holding up a mirror, as it were, in 
which his reader can observe the whole life of the forest reflected, 
Of his professional life the author gives some most interesting 
particulars, and reveals to the uninitiated what a many-sided career 
is that of a Conservator of Indian Forests, whose life is spent tn 
assisting Nature to yield her harvest of woody growth, 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS. 
Recollections of Sea=Otter thunting in the ‘Rurils, 
By H. J. SNOW, F.R.G.S., 
AuTHorR oF ‘ NoTEs on THE Kurit Istanps,’ 
Illustrated. Demy 8v0. 12s. 6d, net. 
The Author of this interesting book has had an experience probably 
unique in an almost unknown part of the world. The stormy wind- 
swept and fog-bound regions of the Kuril Islands, between Japan 
and Kamchatka, have rarely been visited save by the adventurous 
hunters of the sea-otter, and the animal is now becoming so scarce 
that the hazardous occupation of these bold voyagers is no longer 
profitable. For many years, from 1873 to 1888, Captain Snow 
persevered—years of varying success, sometimes fraught with an 
ample return, but more often ending in disaster and shipwreck. The 
list of vessels engaged in the business over a lengthy period, which 
Captain Snow has compiled, shows that scarcely a single one 
escaped a violent end, and the loss of life among their crews was 
enormous. Hunting the sea-otter was indeed just the sort of 
speculative venture in which bold and restless spirits are always 
tempted to engage. In a lucky season the prizes were very great, 
for the value of the furs was immense. The attendant dangers were 
also great—your vessel was always liable to shipwreck ; your boats, 
in which the actual hunting was done, might be swamped in an 
open sea at a moment’s notice ; the natives were frequently hostile, 
and there was always a risk of your whole venture ending in the 
confiscation of ship and cargo by Russian or Japanese orders, and 
the incarceration of yourself and company as ‘trespassers.’ 
Captain Snow, who is a Back Prizeman of the Royal Geographical 
Society, made the charts of the Kuril Islands which are used by the 
British Admiralty, and before plunging into his own adventures he 
gives two excellent chapters on the islands and their inhabitants, 
the Ainu. 
A valuable description of the sea-otter, and its place in natural 
history and commerce, are found in Appendices, 
