竹島問題の歴史

5.7.15

1870 - "Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria," by Arthur Adams, F.L.S.

In his 1870 book "Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria," Arthur Adams not only gives a fairly detailed description of the plant and animal life on Dagelet (Ulleungdo), but he also said a wall of rock seemed to surround the island, except for "seven little sandy coves at which it is possible to land." That suggests the ship he was on did a pretty good survey of the island.

Also, Mr. Adams seemed surprised at how curious and uproarious the reddish brown "sea-bears" living in the waters around Ulleungdo were. "Sea-bear" was the name Europeans first gave to the fur seal.

Mr. Adams also wrote that they saw "three poor Koreans at work" repairing a dilapidated boat. He also said the Koreans had collected "great heaps of dried seals' flesh," so apparently the Koreans were harvesting a lot of seals on Ulleungdo back in 1870.

I think GTOMR posted the text from the book describing Ulleungdo in the comments section of a post, but I do not think we have ever posted about the book, so I am doing it now.



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