206 



and kindness this paper largely owes any claim it may have to completeness. Prof. W. Trelease 

 kindly supplied me with information relating to the species of Epilobium ; and Mr. James Bisset, 

 F. L. S., in regard to a certain plant collected by Prof. J. Milne on the northern Kuriles. 



Physical Geography of the Islands. 



The Kurile Islands, or Chishima (Thousand Isles), as they are called in Japan, comprise about 

 twenty-four principal islands, with several smaller ones scattered around them, extending in a regular 

 chain, about 795 miles long, from the southern point of Kamtschatka to the island of Yezo. They 

 form the boundary between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Northern Pacific, which attains just south 

 of this group the enormous depth of 27,930 feet. 



Until 1875, the islands lying north of Vries or Etorofu Strait belonged to Russia; but by the 

 treaty of that year the whole of the Kurile Islands were placed under the rule of the Japanese Em- 

 pire. The name Hokkaido — the North Sea district — is now applied to the Kuriles, Yezo, and 

 its adjacent smaller islands collectively. 



Beginning at the north, the islands which are habitable 1 are Shumshu, Paramushir, Shiashkotan, 

 Matua, Rashua, Urup, Etorofu or Iturup, Kunashiri and Shikotan. The rest of the islands, chiefly 

 on account of their barrenness and lack of good drinking water, have been left uninhabited. They 

 are visited for game by the inhabitants of the neighboring islands only in times of perfect calm during 

 summer. 



Speaking in a general way, the islands are precipitous and unapproachable on the southern side. 

 The few coves and bays which they possess are situated on the northwestern or northeastern sides. 

 These do not serve, however, as safe places of shelter for ships when the wind is unfavorable. 



The whole chain of islands is washed by the strong cold currents which come down from the 

 northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, and also from the Behring Sea. Between the islands there are 

 strong currents, varying in strength from time to time according to the force of the tidal swell from 

 the Pacific. These cold currents, after quitting the Kurile Islands, descend along the eastern and 

 southern coast of Yezo, forming a stream known in Japan as the Oyashiwo. At times it comes even 

 as far south as Kinkwazan and Inuboye in the main island of Japan. 



Quite close to the east of this cold current, a branch of the Kuroshiwo or Black Stream runs north- 

 eastward to the Behring Sea. According to Blakiston (Japan in Yezo, p. 22), these two opposing 

 currents approach within fifteen miles of each other at Cape Erimo, Yezo, with the difference of temper- 

 ature of 15° F. Whenever the easterly or southerly wind blows over the region, the whole chain of 

 islands is enveloped in the densest fog. This continues usually for a long time, and is said to sur- 

 pass even that of the far-famed coasts of Newfoundland. 



There is another branch of the Kuroshiwo, which enters the Sea of Okhotsk through the Strait of 

 La Perouse, after washing the whole western coast of Japan. Its trace is lost as it approaches the 

 northern coasts of Kunashiri and Etorofu. The effect of this warm current on the climate and veg- 

 etation of these two southern islands can hardly be overestimated. 



From November till April or May, all the islands are locked up in ice. Even in the month of 

 June navigation in these seas is sometimes made dangerous by the sudden appearance of drifting ice 

 from the north. As to the temperature of these islands, we have no observations for any length of 

 time, or that are of any value. That there exist great differences in the temperatui'e between the 

 northern and southern islands is evident even from the difference in their latitude (about 8°), and 

 from the influence of the different ocean currents. According to the records of the navigators who 



1 Pallas; Neue Beschreibung der Kurilischeu Inseln. 



(Neue Nordisclie Beitriige, iv, p. 112-141, 1783.) 



