G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 233 



was dismasted and had lost its rudder in a typhoon off Jesso 

 about the beginning of 1871, and was driven about by the 

 wind and currents for nine months, finally came ashore on 

 the island of Adahk, one of the Aleutians, where the crew 

 were rescued by a hunting party of natives, and subsequent- 

 ly sent down in the schooner Johnson to San Francisco. 

 They had burned up their deck for fuel, and had only fifteen 

 pounds of rice left, were without instruments excepting a 

 compass, and had no chart. This is only one of a number of 

 cases of similar character, giving some plausibility to the hy- 

 pothesis that the Aleutian Islands and the northwest coast 

 of North America were originally peopled in this way from 

 Japan. Letter. 



EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT AMONG THE JAPANESE. 



Much interest has been excited in the United States and 

 England by the movement among the Japanese looking to- 

 ward the introduction of the English language and its liter- 

 ature into the Japanese empire ; and it has even been stated 

 that there is a possibility that our mother tongue may in 

 time become their national language. The principal difficul- 

 ty in the way of this desirable consummation lies in the pe- 

 culiarities of the English language, and the number of irreg- 

 ular verbs characterizing it, as also the want of uniformity 

 in its pronunciation. The idea has been suggested of form- 

 ing an improved English language for the benefit of our Ori- 

 ental friends by making all the verbs regular, and improving 

 the orthography. Should this be carried out, it is not impos- 

 sible that the reform may be in time adopted by ourselves. 



The choice of a new language by the Japanese lies, it is 

 said, between the English and the German, and the selection 

 of the latter is warmly urged by the Germans. Indeed, that 

 language appears to be quite a favorite one in Japan, as at- 

 tested by the existence of an extensive German book-store 

 there doing a large business, and by the establishment of 

 quite a number of schools for teaching the tongue. 17 C, 

 June, 1872, 229. 



ESQUIMAUX SETTLEMENTS IN EAST GREENLAND. 



Herr Pausch, a member of the late German polar expedi- 

 tion, recently made a communication to the German Anthro- 



