vi PREFACE 
greater part of which hunting the sea-otter was my 
chief pursuit. 
The illustrations are partly from photographs, and 
partly from sketches made under my own super¬ 
vision. 
Whilst on my many hunting trips to the Kuril 
Islands, I took occasion to make notes on their 
physical features, their fauna, flora, meteorology, 
etc. ; also to make a survey of nearly every island 
on the chain. The results were embodied in my 
“ Notes on the Kuril Islands,” one of the extra 
publications of the Royal Geographical Society, for 
which work I was honoured by the Society with the 
Back Grant and Diploma. My charts were accepted 
and published by the Admiralty, and are those now 
in use. The “ Notes ” have since been translated 
and published in Japanese by order of the Japanese 
Government. By permission of the Royal Geo¬ 
graphical Society, I have made extensive use of them 
in the first two chapters. 
Further adventures and experiences when in 
quest of the fur-seal, with an account of pelagic seal¬ 
hunting, await the reader should the present book 
prove to be of sufficient interest to warrant me in 
writing another on similar lines. 
H. J. S. 
