16 Canadian Record of Science. 



strait of La Perouse was easily or ossed, and the Island of 

 Yezo was then found to hold out the same temptations to 

 settlement which had previously heen discovered in Kara- 

 futo. From this point, different considerations operated to 

 tempt them in opposite directions. To the north-east, the 

 long line of the Kuriles offered tempting fishing-grounds 

 from which could be obtained, in the seal and sea otter, an 

 abundance of food and warm clothing ; while they would 

 hardly encounter a more rigorous climate, probably less so, 

 than that to which they were accustomed in Siberia. We 

 have also to bear in mind that these islands, as well as the 

 Aleutians, may have been occupied from the north. Again, 

 from Yezo, as a starting point, they found temptations 

 in an opposite direction, not only in an abundance of fish, 

 but in an increasingly warm climate and an abundance of 

 vegetable food which would become of a more enticing- 

 character as they constantly progressed southward. The 

 material which they were accustomed to use for clothing in 

 Siberia, they still found abundantly in Yezo and Northern 

 Honshiu. Thus in course of time, the Ainos came to occupy 

 the entire chain of Japanese Islands from the extreme north, 

 probably as far south even as the Eiu-Kiu Islands, and it 

 was thus that the Japanese found them at the time of their 

 occupation. As the Japanese came more fully into posses- 

 sion of the country, they preserved and adopted into their 

 own language such names of very prominent natural fea- 

 tures as had been bestowed by the Ainos ; and these, often 

 with great modification, remain at the present time as 

 evidence of the former presence of this people. 



At first gaining a foothold upon their new territory 

 through peaceful overtures, the Japanese, with the conscious- 

 ness of increasing strength, no longer preserved the measures 

 of precaution dictated by prudence born of a sense of the 

 Ainos' savage superiority; but gradually adopted more 

 boldness, made demands where before treaty was required 

 by good judgment, and finally became openly aggressive. 

 Thus, gradually, they came to occupy the entire southern 

 extremity of Honshiu and the adjacent islands. The Ainos 

 in the meantime, at first susceptible to kindly overtures, 



