92 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
and take them over to Furebetsu. Only about forty 
turned up, and it was not until about eleven o’clock 
next morning that they made a start, each one 
carrying a load. Our party did not get off until 
after noon. The road lay along the beach for about 
a mile, then up on to a bluff with level land for about 
five miles in a north-westerly direction, thence to 
Furebetsu over hills and valleys for another six 
miles or so. With so many people passing along the 
track, the snow had been trampled down fairly hard, 
so that walking was easy. We straggled in from 
four to five o’clock. After a hot bath and some 
Japanese food we turned in, feeling pretty tired. 
We had an ordinary Japanese house to live in, con¬ 
sisting of three large rooms, including one for 
cooking. We four Europeans had a ten-mat room ; 
the cook and steward had another in which our 
cooking-stove, brought over from the wreck, was 
set up; and the Japanese crew had the third. A 
big bath-tub was built for us, and we were well pro¬ 
vided with wood and charcoal. 
Furebetsu was then a small village of about 
fifteen Japanese houses, a few Ainu huts, and a 
number of small wooden go-downs for fish and other 
stores. It lies in a narrow valley on a small stream 
which flows into the harbour. Right across the 
mouth of the valley is a high wooden loopholed wall, 
built of heavy logs. The harbour is formed by a 
small indentation of the coast, with a reef of rocks 
extending from the southern point of the bight. 
There is a depth of from 4 to 14 fathoms inside, but 
only room for two or three small vessels. On the 
hill above the village I came across a couple of old 
dismounted guns. The people of the village had little 
