The Pico Strait, between Etorofu and Kunashiri, is about fourteen miles wide, and a strong current from the Okhotsk Sea passes through it, causing the sea to break in heavy tide-rips and overfalls similar to those observed in the La Perouse Strait, between Yezo and Sakhalin. Similar tide-rips are observed also in the channel between Etorofu and Urup, but, being much wider (about twenty-four miles), they seem there less formidable.
Kunashiri is the next largest island in the Kuriles after Etorofu. It is about sixty-five miles long, and very narrow; varying from three to eight miles in width. The north-east portion is somewhat wider, and extremely mountainous. The highest peak of this mountain range is the Tcha-Tcha-Nobori (the old-old-mountain), which is said to be about seven thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. From this volcano starts a chain of hills—some pyramidal in form, others somewhat rounder at the top—which forms the backbone of the island. Two more active volcanoes besides the Tcha-Tcha are on the south-west portion of Kunashiri, but they do not rise to a very great altitude. On Horanaho or Rausu volcano sulphur accumulations are found, and at Pontoo (small lake) sulphur bubbles out from the lake bottom, and seems to be worked with profit. The Tcha-Tcha-Nobori is curiously shaped. It is like a large cone cut about half-way up in a section, to which a smaller cone has been attached, leaving a wide ring right round. It is extremely picturesque, and a worthy finish to the strange outline of Kunashiri Island.
Vegetation and products are the same as in Etorofu. Salmon is plentiful, and a few fishing-stations are spread out here and there at long intervals on the coast. As in Etorofu, the population of Kunashiri migrates there from Yezo during the fishing season, and leaves the island almost deserted in winter. The strait separating it from Yezo is only ten or twelve miles wide. Bears and foxes are said to be very numerous in all the larger islands of the Kuriles, and seals are captured in large quantities during the winter months, more especially in the islands nearer Kamschatka. Small game, as ducks, snipes, and sandpipers, is abundant. Besides the ruggedness and strange aspect of its numerous volcanic peaks, the bareness and the loneliness of the coast, there is nothing in the Kurile group to entice the sightseer and the pleasure-seeker to a cruise among the islands. The geologist and zoologist, however, would find in the Kuriles a very rough but very interesting field for their investigations, and a "good shot," who does not mind a self-sacrificing and lonely life, would find some good sport among the bears, especially in Kunashiri and Etorofu.
WOMAN OF THE KURILE ISLANDS
ABASHIRI ISLAND.