370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



was the most prosperous village I saw in all the Ryukyus. The war 

 had hardly touched this remote island, and the people, except those 

 connected with the mine, seemed to be happy and thriving. 



Perhaps the most memorable trip we made was the one up the 

 Urauchi River. We crossed over the day before from our base in 

 Shira-hama to Sonai, where the local forest office made us welcome 

 for the night and the local hotel sent steaming Japanese food. Next 

 day we crossed the flats, climbed a ridge, and dropped down to the 

 river bank where a boat awaited us. Thence we were skulled up the 

 river a few miles between heavily forested mountain slopes (pi. 5 lower, 

 and pi. 10, center) to the lower falls, whence we proceeded on foot 

 along the gorge to the upper falls, collecting as we went. Time out 

 was taken for a swim in a pool, the only time I was comfortably cool 

 in my whole Ryukyu visit. 



After each of these trips into the field, hours were spent working 

 up the notes, improving the specimens, painting them with alcohol 

 and formalin, and wrapping them tightly in bundles. In this condi- 

 tion they would keep from decaying until our return to Naha in Oki- 

 nawa, where they were subsequently dried. 



Iriomote is friendly, it is wild, and it is remote. For restful isola- 

 tion it is ideal. No boats, other than small strange fly-by-night craft 

 with ancient throbbing diesel engines, called while we were there; 

 hence nothing could be sent or received, most regrettably mail. Radio 

 telephone communication, how T ever, was maintained with the United 

 States Army's Yaeyama Civil Administration Team's headquarters 

 on Ishigaki Island, the next one east of Iriomote. By this means, 

 Lt. Col. Hazen C. Schouman, in charge of that team, extended Tawada 

 and me an invitation to come out to sea next day and join his official 

 inspection trip in the 50-foot police boat to still more remote Yonaguni 

 Island to the west, the last in the chain and almost within sight of 

 Taiwan. 



Yonaguni Shima is a plateau scarcely 7 miles long and 2y 2 miles 

 wide, bounded on almost all sides by sheer limestone or sandstone sea 

 cliffs (pi. 9, upper). There are two small, partly artificial harbors 

 suitable for small craft. Two peaks rise up above the plateau to 740 

 and 600 feet, but they bear only poor secondary forests. The island 

 is well populated and extensively cultivated or grazed. The Amer- 

 icans recently built for them their first motor roads totaling 9 miles, 

 thus initiating the motor age in this end-of-the-earth spot. Still more 

 recently the Americans had broken up with a heavy hand an extensive 

 and lucrative smuggling trade with Communist China. Hence, there 

 were no friendly looks for a stray American botanist, and only the 

 children smiled at me, as they did everywhere I went in the Ryukyus. 

 Here I felt quite unwelcome. Nevertheless, I was invited to join 



