REPORT 



OF 



JAPANESE VESSELS 



WRECKED IN THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN 



FKOM THE 



EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



Every junk found adrift or stranded on the coast of North America, or on 

 the Hawaiian or adjacent islands, has on examination proved to be Japanese, 

 and no single instance of any Chinese vessel has ever been reported, nor is 

 any believed to have existed. 



This may be explained by the existence of theKuro Shi wo, literally " black 

 stream," a gulf stream of warm water, which sweeps northeasterly past Japan 

 toward the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, thence curving around and passing 

 south along the coast of Alaska, Oregon and California. This stream, it is 

 fouad, has swept these junks toward America at an average rate of fully 

 ten miles a day. 



There also exists an ocean stream of cold water, emerging from the Arctic 

 Ocean, which sets south close in along the eastern coast of Asia. This fully 

 accounts for the absence of Chinese junks on the Pacific, as vessels disabled 

 off their coast would naturally drift southward. 



A noticeable feature is the large number of disasters on the coast of Japan 

 in the month of January, during which season the strong northeast monsoons 

 blow the wrecks directly off shore into the Kuro Shi wo. 



The climate of Japan is temperate, with the exception of the extreme north- 

 ern provinces, where intense cold prevails and where snow is abundant; and 

 the extreme southern provinces, whose climate is very warm. 



About the year 1639 the Japanese Government ordered all junks to be built 

 with open sterns, and large square rudders, unfit for ocean navigation, hoping 



