Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston

“ During Blakiston's residence at Hakodate he paid great attention to the ornithology of Yezo. He made an extensive collection of birds, which is now in the museum at Hakodate, and in 1878 compiled, with Mr. H. Pryer of Yokohama, a catalogue of the avifauna of Japan (Ibis, 1878, pp. 207–50) , revised and republished in the ‘Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan’ in 1880 and 1882, and finally in London in 1884. He demonstrated that the birds of Yezo belong to the Siberian as distinct from the Manchurian sub-region of the Palæarctic region ”

“ This business had to be abandoned owing to the obstructions of the Japanese government; but he remained in Hakodate as a merchant, executed surveys and designed fortifications, and soon became the best known of the European residents—‘le véritable roi d'Hakodate’—keeping open house for travellers, especially those with scientific interests. ”

“ Before returning to England Blakiston visited Yezo, the northern island of Japan. Having resigned his commission in 1862, he entered into an arrangement with a substantial firm, and returned to Yezo in 1863, via Russia, Siberia, and the Amur river. He settled at the treaty port of Hakodate, and founded sawmills for the export of timber to China. ”