D e V r ìe s 's
S t r e ig h t .
V o l c a n o e s .
N a t i v e s ,
bellowed on the {freight which feparates it from Atorkou the
name of De Fries's, in honor o f their commander. No places
have puzzled geographers fo greatly. D’Ant}ille gives to Jefo,
Jofogafima, as it is fometimes calted, the form o f a vaft ifland ;
and to the Company's hand and Staten-land a figure poflibly
very different from the reality. The editors o f Cook’s Voyage
make them only fmall iflands. The Ruffians again, in their hif-
tory o f Kamfehatka, give them another form ; and Mr. Arrow-
fmith very properly leaves it undecided whether Jefo is continent
or archipelago. This being mentioned, we haften to the
conclufion of this volume, and give a brief account o f the remainder
of the Kuril iiles. Etorpu, the nineteenth in order,
reckoning from Lopatka-nofs, comes next. Molt o f the iflands
of this long chain are volcanic. Rafebotti, the tenth, has in our
days been fo rent with an earthquake, as entirely to drive away
the numerous flocks of birds that ufed to frequent its cliffs ; but
the fea-lions itill keep their ftations. On Kounafchir, the twentieth,
is one volcano ; on Etorpu are two; on Amakutan another
; and on the lofty Poromofchir, the higheft in the chain,
remarkable for its vaft peaked mountains, is probably another.
I have treated of thefe iflands fo fully in my introduction to the
ArBic Zoology, that I lhall not tire my reader with' the repetition
; I therefore will only fay here, that many o f them have
been conquered by the Ruffians, who, not thinking them worth
the expence o f colonizing, content themfelves with accepting a
fmall tribute.
T h e inhabitants refemble thofe o f the land o f Jefo, and are
equally hairy. By the accounts o f the Ruffians who vilited thefe
iflands
iflands in 1777» they differ in fome o f their cuftoms from the
former. They have multitudes o f little houfehold gods, like the
Mongol Tartars, and they pay a worlhip to the owl. The Mongols
do the fame, for the reafon given in the zoological part of
the ArBic Zoology*. This may direft us to the origin o f thefe
iflanders. They bury their dead in the earth, and believe in a
future life, to be palled in certain fubterraneous regions.
* Vol. i. p. VJ2,
END OF THE THIRD VOLUM E.