THE KURIL ISLANDS 
7 
Tufted puffins, black guillemots, and shags, also 
breed here in large numbers. Horned puffins, parrot¬ 
billed auks, grey-headed auks, fork-tailed petrels, 
and Leach’s petrels, are common, but not numerous. 
Harlequin ducks are plentiful, but I never have been 
able to find their eggs. Wild-geese (Bernicla 
hutchinsi) in limited numbers breed here also. The 
land birds are confined to ravens, falcons, wagtails, 
and wrens. 
Earthquake shocks are frequent all along the Kuril 
chain of islands. I have experienced them on shore 
and on board ship, both when at anchor and when 
under way. Perhaps, when a shock is felt on board 
a ship that is under way, the disturbance causing it 
is more likely to be a submarine eruption than an 
earthquake. When, however, a vessel is lying at 
anchor, she is attached to the earth by her anchors 
and cables, and an earthquake is communicated to 
the vessel through them. 
On July 12, 1884, when sailing along the islands, 
about four miles to the westward of the Srednoi 
Rocks, we felt the effects of a series of earthquake 
shocks, or more probably the commotion caused by 
a submarine eruption. About five o’clock p.m., when 
in my cabin, a noise like the running out of a line 
over a vessel’s rail was heard. I thought a cast of 
the lead was being taken, as a thick fog prevailed at 
the time, and took no further notice. Some little 
time afterwards the same kind of sound again oc¬ 
curred, but much louder. On making inquiries on 
deck, I found that no one had noticed it. About 
six o’clock we were sitting down to our evening meal, 
when a violent trembling of the vessel, accompanied 
by a sound like steam blowing off from a boiler, took 
