OF THE DEPENDENT ISLES OF TAIWAN. 47 



domain from that of the United States. AVithin the Japanese 

 waters lie the Batans, the Bash islands, the rocks of Gadd and 

 Forest Belle, the islands of Shô-Kôtô (Little Botel-Tobago) and 

 Koto (Botel-Tobago), and, lastly, Kasho (Samasana), as the conti- 

 nuation of, I conjecture, the Mayon system of volcanoes {Fig. 1), 



The smaller isle of Koto is, geologically speaking, entirely 

 unknown, but the Larger Koto has been several times visited 

 by the Japanese, since the first landing of a staff of the gover- 

 norship of Taiwan, in April, 1897. Among our University 

 men, Mr. Tatla stayed there a week collecting zoological speci- 

 mens, and, lately, Mr. Toiii remained longer in this lonely island 

 among the aborigines for his anthropological study. I myself 

 have not had the opportunity of visiting it, though the island 

 has been within my sight for a week long, while travelling the 

 pathless beaches of south-eastern Taiwan. 



The island of the Larger Koto {Fig. 1) lies in a south-eastern 

 direction about 50 miles off the coast of Pinau, and 35 miles 

 north of north-east from the Cape of Galambi in Taiwan. Its 

 north-south extent is 3 ri and the breadth 11 ri, with the 

 circumference of 9 ri. It is the abode of 1,500 nude aborigines. 

 Seen from a distance, this scapula-shaped island appears plateau - 

 like in general profile, crowned by a prominence of 120 m., 

 somewhat excentrically situated in the north ; and is bounded by 

 steep declivity all round the coast, so that it leaves only a nar- 

 row patch of lowland on the south-western shore, which serves 

 at the same time for the chief anchor-ground of this islet. 



Being situated amidst the stormy and swift Kuro-shiivo cur- 

 rent, the narrow beach is highly cobbly, as may be seen from 

 Mr. Torii's photographs ; and the steep clifi' undoubtedly owes 

 its present form to the abrading action of dashing waves. 



