As to the Masampo reach or inlet, specifically, which is the head of the gulf, “its entrance, five cables wide, named the Gate, is perfectly free from dangers, and is available for all classes of vessels. On either side are treeless hills, bare in winter, but in summer covered with grass; these hills, near the entrance, slope steeply to the water’s edge. The general depth over the reach is seven fathoms, but it shallows gradually as the town of Masampo is neared, until at one mile from the town the depth is four fathoms.... Anchorage may be had anywhere in Masampo reach, according to draught; a depth of three fathoms being found at half a mile from the town, and six to seven fathoms at two miles below it.”—The _Sailing Directions for Japan, Korea, and Adjacent Seas_, published by the British Admiralty, London, 1904, pp. 114–115. Masampo is the best but not the only good naval harbor on the southern coast of Korea. Footnote 95: In 1861, when some Russian marines landed here and took virtual possession of the islands, Awa Katsu, who was then one of the officers appointed by the Yedo government to study the possibility of organizing military forces after the Western model, succeeded in setting the British Minister against the Russian Minister about the Tsushima affair. Russia was obliged to abandon the islands. See the _Katsu Kaishū_ (a life of Katsu), Tokio, 1899, iii. pp. 57–59. Footnote 96: It is interesting to hear that Russian school text-books enumerate Korea and Manchuria among the Russian spheres of influence.—A letter from Tōsuisei, dated St. Petersburg, February 13, 1900, in the _Kokumin_, April 1, 1900. Footnote 97: