Modern Explorers

by Thomas Frost

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 ... hunters have no fear of either a bad season or the extinction of the animals. These are of various species, known as sea-lions, sea bears, sea-cows, &c, and their numbers are prodigious. Some of the members of Nordenskiold's expedition, who visited Cape Severnoi, estimated the number then present on the shore at not less than 300,000! The number killed here in 1879 was 13,000, and the annual export of skins from both islands amounts to 120,000. At this rate there seems no likelihood of the animals becoming extinct, and as they are not disturbed during ten months of the year they are not likely to abandon their resorts. The fur-trading company pay a tax of two roubles per skin to the Russian Government, and the hunters receive one rouble for each. The islanders are now civilised, and appear to be thriving and comfortable, procuring from the company's stores all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life. They own the houses in which they live, and which are all built of wood, and furnished in the European style. One of the narrators of the expedition " We were received with the greatest hospitality in the houses we visited. The Russian tea-urn was always on the table, and in the evening there was singing and dancing going on in most of the houses; one would believe that he was among the happiest people in the world." The explorers remained here until the 19th, when the voyage was resumed with a fair wind, which blew steadily until the 31st, enabling them to make rapid progress southward. On that day they experienced a violent thunderstorm, and the lightning struck the mainmast, splintering the truck, and giving a shock to those who were near the wire-rigging. Next day they sighted the east coast of Japan, and on the evening of the...

44 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Thomas Frost was an English writer, journalist, lecturer, printer and Chartist.