8 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
place. All hands rushed on deck, thinking the 
vessel had run on a reef; but all was quiet and as 
usual, the schooner slowly forging ahead with a very 
light south-south-east breeze. Several casts of the 
lead were taken, but no bottom found with all the 
line out. This same rushing noise and trembling of 
the vessel continued for nearly two hours at intervals 
of about fifteen minutes, each time lasting about 
thirty seconds. No disturbance of the sea was 
noticed, but on account of the fog our range of 
vision was very limited. The temperature of the 
sea remained normal (36° F.). 
Although to those below the rushing noise like 
the blowing off of a steam boiler appeared to be very 
loud, those on deck could not hear it, notwithstand¬ 
ing the trembling of the vessel was equally per¬ 
ceptible there. The sound must therefore have 
been communicated through the water, and was 
undoubtedly due to a submarine disturbance of 
some kind. Some days after I visited the craters 
of Ushishir and Rashau, but they showed no signs 
of increased activity. 
Lying as they do in the “ roaring forties,” and 
having a cold Arctic current (the Oyashiwo), whose 
average summer temperature is not more than 36° F., 
setting to the south-west along their coasts, with 
outside that, to the eastward, the warm Japan current 
(Kuroshiwo) setting in the opposite direction, the 
Kuril Islands cannot be expected to enjoy an ideal 
climate. 
The spring is cold and boisterous, and large ice¬ 
fields, brought across the Okotsk Sea by north¬ 
westerly winds, beset the southernmost islands and 
the eastern coast of Yezo, and it is often well into 
