288 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
otter-hunting business, and for keeping guard, against 
foreign poachers. At first no change was made in 
the old system, the skins being taken over from the 
Ainu hunters at the usual price—viz., about 8 bushels 
of unhulled rice per skin of the first quality, 6 bushels 
for medium, and 4 bushels for ordinary, being about 
equal, at the rates of value then ruling, to about 24s., 
16s., and 12s., respectively. 
“ In 1870 a change was made, the Ainu of 
Yetorup being taken into the employment of the 
Colonization Office, and the hunting operations being 
conducted under official supervision. But this ex¬ 
periment was not found to yield satisfactory results, 
and in 1874 the former system was reverted to. In 
that year, for the first time, two Japanese gunboats 
were sent to patrol the coast of the southern Kurils 
and keep off foreign poachers, and the practice has 
been kept up every year since. At the same time 
two branch stations of the Kaitakushi were estab¬ 
lished in Yetorup—viz., at Notsuka and Toshiuri— 
and whilst general permission was given to the Ainu 
for hunting, the sale of the skins to anyone but the 
Government was strictly forbidden, the official price 
of skins being 5, 4, and 3 yen (about 20s., 16s., and 
12s.), according to quality. 
44 The Ainu methods of hunting the otter were, 
in summer, lying on the rocks and shooting with the 
bow and arrow ; in winter, clubbing the quarry on 
the ice. The Kaitakushi officials soon copied and 
introduced the foreign method of hunting with boats 
and guns. In 1877 the hunting-stations on Yetorup 
were increased to four, and in the following year 
several more officers and hunting-stations were set 
up in other islands, which had now become Japanese 
