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INTRODUCTION. an™rop 



LIBRARY 



As nature is a mechanism whose parts are intimately associated, so all vork 

 has its co-laborers. I am indebted to many kind friends for their co-oper- 

 ation and assistance in verifying the particulars of individual cases. The 

 collection, as a whole, is entirely my own, and has been progressing since 

 March, 1853, when at sea off the coast of Japan I first fell in with the water- 

 logged wreck of a junk. 



In issuing this reprint of a paper published in the Proceedings of the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Sciences, no one can be more aware than myself, of how 

 much is left undone; but I must in frankness say, that thus far the collection 

 of exact particulars has involved a voluminous correspondence, and been in- 

 dustriously prosecuted, in spite of great difficulties, (often of distance); and 

 had 1 awaited to obtain perfect completeness, this publication would have 

 been indefinitely postponed. 



By calling attention to material already in hand, I hope other cases may be 

 b'ought to light, and thus a chain of evidence become established, which 

 shall point to hidden laws, underlying the ethnological as well as physical 

 conditions here presented. 



With each step in the progress of these investigations, I have been deeply 

 impressed how largely this list is capable of being increased, by studious and 

 systematic search through all the ancient literature, relating to countries 

 whose shores are washed by the North Pacific Ocean. 



In the aim to exercise especial care, where partial discrepancies were found 

 to exist, the version which, after diligent examination, appears to me 

 most reliable, has been adopted. Keports of Japanese wrecks not here enum- 

 erated, or any well authenticated corrections to this list, will, if addressed to 

 Chakles Wolcott Brooks, care of Japanese Consulate, San Francisco, Cali- 

 fornia, be thankfully received, and posted in the official record book, access- 

 ible to all for future reference. 



Among those whose kind co-operation I take pleasure in acknowledging, 

 are: Their Excellencies the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Japan; His Excel- 

 lency Kats Ava, H. I. J. M. Minister of Marine; His Excellency Hirobumi 

 Ito, H. I. J. M. Minister of Public Works: Nakahama Manjiro; Fukuzawa 

 Ukitchy, now one of the most advanced literary men of Japan; Yoshinari 

 Hatakeyama, A, M., one of their ripest scholars, and head of the Imperial 

 College at Tokio; and especially to my former colleague and present suc- 

 cessor, Samro Takaki, to whom I am largely indebted for many valuable 

 translations and researches into official records; to Professor George David- 

 son, United States Coast Survey, for reliable information regarding the phys- 

 ical features of the Kuro Shi wo; and to members of the Academy for their 

 kind appreciation of the importance of the work undertaken. 



C. W. B. 



San Francisco, Oct. 1, 1876. 



