108 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
tridges, I got a supply of beef, pork, flour, sugar, 
butter, coffee, ham, and biscuit; so for the rest of 
our stay on the island we fared sumptuously. On 
May 1 we returned to Furebetsu. On the way I 
noticed large numbers of wild-geese passing over. 
The natives were now busy cod-fishing. They 
use small hooks without any barb, and 100 of these 
are attached to a long line by short lengths of other 
line, tied on at intervals of about 2 feet. The line 
is paid out from a boat, one end being buoyed, 
and allowed to lie along the bottom for some time. 
It is then hauled up, and the fish caught taken off 
the hooks. Off Furebetsu they fished in a depth 
of 60 fathoms of water. Each boat only got about 
twenty to twenty-five a day, but farther down the 
coast one boat would take from 100 to 150. Skate, 
rock-cod, and several other kinds of fish, were taken 
when fishing for cod. The cod were split up the 
back and belly, the backbone taken out, the head 
cut off, and then strung up over poles and dried in 
the sun. They were then tied up in bundles and 
shipped south to Japan. 
On May 11 word came from Onebetsu that the 
Capron , now renamed the Karafuto Maru , had 
arrived, and would leave in about six days. The 
Governor and other officials went across, and re¬ 
turned on the 13th, bringing me some letters from 
Hakodate, the news of the loss of our schooner 
having been reported by the schooner Lottie . 
On the 15th the party that had wintered in Bear 
Bay, at the north-east end of the island, arrived, 
consisting of a hunter named Runyon and three 
men. They had fifty-three sea-otter skins, all 
salted. We acted as interpreters in the negotiations 
