124 VITUS BERI]SrG. _ 



Taroko Islands, he did not reach the Kurile Islands them- 

 selves, and only the most northerly island in the group 

 of the ''Three Sisters" may possibly be the southern 

 point of Iturup. He then proceeded along the eastern 

 coast of Yezo, took the deep bay of Akischis as a strait 

 separating Seljonyi and Konosir, then crossed in a south- 

 erly direction the large bay on the central coast of Yezo, 

 without seeing land at its head, to Cape Jerimo (his 

 Matmai), and had thus navigated the whole east coast of 

 Yezo; but on account of the heavy fog, wliich prevented 

 him from seeing the exact outline of the coast, he made 

 three islands of Yezo: Matmai, Seljonyi and Konosir. In 

 1G43, De Vries had in his map linked a number of islands 

 together, making one stretch of country called Je^o, and 

 now Spangberg had gone to the opposite extreme. 



These explorations engaged Spangberg from the 3d to 

 the 25th of July. He several times met inhabitants of 

 North Yezo, the Aino people, whose principal character- 

 istics he has fully described, but as his men were suffer- 

 iug from scurvy, causing frequent deaths among them 

 (by August 29, when he arrived at Okhotsk, he had 

 lost thirteen, among them the physician), he resolved to 

 turn at Cape Jerimo, and on his return trip keep his 

 course so close to the Kuriles that he might strike the 

 extreme points of De Tlsle's Je90, all of Kompagniland, 

 and the most westerly parts of Gamaland. 



Spangberg's explorations w^ere far from exhaustive. 

 He but partly succeeded in lifting the veil that so 

 persistently concealed the true outline of this irregularly 

 formed part of the globe. His reconnoissance was to 

 ascertain the general oceanic outline of these coasts. 



