CHAPTER II 
THE KURILSKY AINU 
The Kuril Islands were known to the Japanese 
certainly as far back as the fifteenth century, but 
they are not recorded as having been known to 
Europeans until discovered by De Vries, a Dutch 
navigator, in 1634. 
The fact that all the Kuril Islands bear Ainu 
names tends to show, I think, that they were first 
known to, and visited by, that people. Indeed, 
there is ample evidence to show that such was the 
case. In the “ Memoirs of the Literature College,” 
Imperial University of Japan, No. I., by Professor 
B. H. Chamberlain, a catalogue of 465 books, chiefly 
Japanese, relating to Yezo and the Ainu is given. 
In a considerable number of these, reference is made 
to the Kuril Islands and their inhabitants ; most, 
however, deal with the southern islands of the 
chain, although some give particulars of the central 
and northern islands previous to their discovery by 
De Vries in 1634. In order to visit the more northern 
Kurils the Ainu must have possessed at that time 
fairly substantial boats, or they could not very well 
have made the voyage, some of the straits being from 
thirty to forty miles wide, and all the risks arising 
from strong currents, heavy tide-rips, fog, and 
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