A NEW FUR-SEAL ROOKERY 
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order to give our Ainu friends all our old clothes and 
whatever else we could spare. They had never 
fared so well before ; we were liberally inclined after 
a good catch, and gave them a quantity of stores and 
luxuries, besides tools, ammunition, a shot-gun, and 
other things such as they had never possessed. 
On the night of the 15th-16th we passed the 
volcano on the south-west end of Simushir in eruption. 
The red-hot lava running down in small streams 
made the mountain look as if covered with lanterns. 
When off the north-east end of Urup we encountered 
a heavy west-north-west gale, with high seas and a 
very bad tide-rip. In stowing the jib one of our 
sailors fell overboard. He kept afloat until we got 
the vessel round and ran up to him, when a line was 
thrown, which he grasped, but could not hold on to. 
Before we could get to him again the poor fellow 
went down and was lost. It was impossible to 
lower and man a boat in such a sea and tide-rip. 
We arrived in Yokohama on the last day of 
September. When beating up the Uraga Channel 
the previous night, we had a narrow escape from 
collision with the Emperor’s yacht, which, dis¬ 
regarding all the rules of the road, very nearly ran 
us down. We were close hauled, and the steamer 
as she approached us kept altering her course to 
cross our bows, a common habit with Japanese 
vessels in those days, and a habit from which they 
are not altogether free even now. To avoid being 
run into, we had at the last minute, when about a 
dozen yards off, to put the helm hard down and let 
the schooner fly up in the wind. As may be imagined, 
“ greetings ” were exchanged with those in charge 
of the yacht. We had a valuable catch on board, 
