18 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
hard up for food. I told him where he could catch 
boat-loads in a very short time, and since then they 
have done somewhat better, the catching of cod and 
other fish later becoming quite an industry with 
them. 
Subsequently they made better progress. More 
settlers joined them, and one or two schooners were 
procured and used for hunting and fishing. This 
lasted until the war with Russia, when they made 
raids on the Kamchatka coast, losing their vessels 
and some of their people; while others, including 
Gunji himself, were taken prisoners. The Russians 
are reported to have made a raid on the Shumshir 
settlement, but whether this report is true or not 
I have not been able to ascertain. Anyhow, the 
Japanese Government took away all who were left, 
till the war was over. 
Practically, the only islands of any value in the 
Kuril Chain are Kunashiri and Yetorup. The former 
has about 1,500, and the latter about 1,400, per¬ 
manent inhabitants. Of these, about three-fourths 
are Japanese, the rest Ainu. During the fishing 
season, which lasts about six months, several hundred 
fishermen are brought to these islands and employed 
in the fishing industry. In the palmy days of the 
Russian-American Company, most of the northern 
and central islands must have been inhabited, as 
there are the remains of old villages on Shumshir, 
Paramushir, Onekotan, Kharimokotan, Shiashiko- 
tan, Matau, Rashau, Ushishir, Simushir, and Urup. 
Having unwisely ventured to try a winter 
season’s hunting in the vicinity of the Kurils, I had 
the misfortune, on December 4, 1874, to be wrecked 
on the east coast of Yetorup, near Onebets, where 
