226 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
We reached Hakodate on September 16, and 
left again on the morning of the 27th, bound for 
the east coast of Saghalin, where we arrived on 
October 2. We remained cruising in the vicinity of 
Cape Patience until November 15, hoping to get 
some seals at Robben Island after the Russians had 
gone. An accident happened to the vessel that was 
sent to take them away, so they remained there until 
late in November, and our venture was accordingly 
wasted. On the day we left we ran close in to the 
islet, and dipped our flag to the Russians, an act 
which they acknowledged by dipping theirs. Whilst 
off the Saghalin coast I landed many times, and 
saw a good deal of the natives, mostly Ainu, who 
lived near the cape. They informed me that they 
had occasionally been troubled, and some of their 
friends killed, by escaped Russian convicts, against 
whom they were very bitter. The Russian authori¬ 
ties had granted them permission to kill any of 
these escaped convicts they might come across, on 
condition that they would give up the bodies. This 
condition, they said, they never observed, as it was 
too much trouble ; they always burned the bodies 
so as to destroy all traces. 
It was on Cape Patience that I saw these natives 
make use of a very clever method of capturing 
leopard seals (Phoca vitulina ), of which there were 
numbers in the vicinity. The modus operandi was 
as follows: A large log, about 15 feet or so in 
length, was anchored by both ends off the shore, 
about 70 or 80 yards out. On this the seals would 
climb, and lie asleep half submerged. A look-out 
was kept, and as soon as a seal was noticed to 
be comfortably settled, two men would go down 
