NOTES ON LIU-KIU. 255 



Alccste and Lyra, affords perfect shelter in all winds. This harbour is described 

 as being as beautiful as it is secure, but excepting during the months of 

 August, September, and October, there is, from a precautionary point of view, 

 but little necessity for \dsiting it. For the rest of the year the islands, lying 

 as they do within the limits of the north-east and south-west monsoons, are 

 troubled with but little bad weather. From October until March northerly 

 Avinds prevail, but by May the south-west monsoon has set in, and blows 

 steadily. A period of settled fine weather then follows ; from July to Sep- 

 tember the winds are somewhat variable, and finally, at the beginning of 

 the latter month, the north-east monsoon commences, and for two or three 

 months is attended by unsettled weather and rain. 



The zoology of the islands has, unfortunately, been very little investigated. 

 Commodore Perry's visits, though extending over a period of some months, 

 were productive of almost no results in this branch of science, and the short 

 stay of the Marchesa in Okinawa-sima, and the dense crowds of people that 

 surrounded us wherever we went, combined to prevent investigation in our 

 own case. During the short expedition made by the Americans towards the 

 north of the island, the existence of the wild boar was verified, but no deer 

 or monkeys were seen, although both have been said to be found upon the 

 islands. In Hakluyt a passing mention of the Liu-kius is made, in which 

 deer are alluded to. " The Chinar sayd likewise that they (the Liukiuans) 

 did often come with small shippes and barkes laden with bucks and hartes' 

 hides, and with. Golde in graines and very small pieces to traffic^ue with them 

 of the coast of China, which hee assured me to bee most true." On the 

 other hand the Jesuit missionary, Pere Gaubil, in his account of the islands ^ 

 .says that Okinawa-sima " est assez heureuse pour n'avoir ni loups, ni tigres, 

 ni ours ; elle n'a non plus ni lie"\Tes, ni dains" Nothing, however, is said 

 of monkeys, though Mr. Satow in his "Notes on Loochoo"^ writes, "Among 

 wild animals the deer, ape, and wild boar are mentioned." It is quite 

 possible, if not most jjrobable, that both the former exist. The islands, so 

 far as can be judged from the scanty data aftbrded us at present, are connected 

 both mth China and Japan, and probably Formosa, by a submarine bank 

 with soundings of not much over one hundred fathoms. A Macacus is foimd 

 in both of the latter countries,^ which are also inhabited by a species of 

 Axis deer and a Goat-antelope {Neraorhcedus), and though in each case the 



^ " Lettres Edifiantes et Curieiises," torn, xxiii. p. 232. This paper, which appears to 

 be on the whole wonderfully correct, is a translation by the learned father, then missionary 

 at Pekin, of an account of the islands written in 1721 by Supao-kwan, who was sent in 

 1719 by Kang-hi, Emperor of China, as ambassador to the King of Liu-kiu. 



- "Trans. Asiat. Soc. of Japan," vol. i. p. 3. 



^ M. speciosus of Jaj)an is remarkable for having the most northern range of any 

 monkey. 



