- Thomas Blakiston
Thomas Wright Blakiston (
December 27 ,1832 -October 15 ,1891 ) was an English explorer and naturalist.Born in
Lymington ,England , Blakiston was the son of Major John Blakiston, second son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, 2nd Baronet (seeBlakiston Baronets for earlier history of the family). His mother was Jane, daughter of Reverend Thomas Wright, Rector ofMarket Bosworth ,Leicestershire . Blakiston explored westernCanada with thePalliser Expedition between 1857 and 1859. In 1862 he travelled up theYangtze River inChina , going further than any Westerner before him. He spent the next part of his life inJapan and became one of the major naturalists in that country. He moved to theUnited States in 1886. Blakiston died ofpneumonia while inSan Diego, California in 1891 and is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery,Columbus, Ohio .Blakiston was the first person to notice that animals in
Hokkaidō , Japan's northern island, were related to northernAsia n species, whereas those onHonshū to the south were related to those fromsouthern Asia . TheTsugaru Strait between the two islands was therefore established as a major zoogeographical boundary, and became known as the "Blakiston Line ".Blakiston collected an owl specimen in
Hakodate , Japan in 1883. This was later described byHenry Seebohm and namedBlakiston's Fish Owl .Blakiston married Ann Mary, daughter of James Dunn, in 1885. They had at least two children. He died in October 1891, aged 58. His wife survived him by 46 years and died in March 1937.
References
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ www.thepeerage.com]
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