confined alone to these islands, but is of great commercial importance in nearly all of the island groups described.

Like Australia, in the surrounding seas, as many as thirteen hundred species of fish are known.

JAPAN.

Dai Niphon, the Japanese Empire, we know of, through history and tradition, as far back as 680 B. C. The island empire is embraced between latitude 23 deg. and 50 deg. north, and longitude 122 deg. and 153 deg. east. Thousands of islands (the official number is stated to be 4,000), stretched over the Asiatic seas, make a landed area of about 250,000 square miles, inhabited by 34,000,000 people.

The island chains and clusters are divided into groups, the more important being named Kurile, Kiushiu, Niphon, Riukiu, Sado, Shikokiu, Yezo, Goto, Oki, Iki, Oshima, Awaji, Hirado, etc.; the most noted cities on which are Tokio (formerly Yedo), Kioto, Ozaka, Nagoya, Hiroshuma, Sagii, Kagoshuma, Kanagawa, Samoda, etc.

HISTORY.

Our first knowledge of Japan was through the celebrated Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who visited the empire in the thirteenth century. At a more modern period we hear of them through the efforts of the Catholic missionaries, and again from the Dutch explorer, Kæmpfer. It remained, however, almost a terra incognita until 1854, when the United States, through the efforts of Commodore Perry, succeeded

in making a commercial treaty that opened up the isolated empire to the trade of the world.

The islands of Japan were probably peopled by the Chinese in 1000 B. C.-many traces of whom are to be found in the language, manners, religion, customs and agriculture of the Japanese to-day. The art of navigation, also, was well understood by them for many centuries.

NAVIGATION.

As early as the sixteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Suizin, 81 B. c., merchant ships and ships of war are spoken of as being built in Japan.

In the early periods their vessels must have been greatly superior in form and build to those of the present day. In fact, they were and are mariners of no mean order, and through this circumstance alone, if we add the storms, favoring winds and the ocean currents of the Kuro Shiwo in the north, and the Peruvian currents in the south, the peopling of North and South America can be traced back to the Japanese and Chinese.

The disappearance of Japanese vessels off of their coast, with their crews, never to return, whether through accident or design, have become so frequent as to require an imperial decree to check it. Under the reign of Shogoon Irzemitsu, about 1639, an edict was issued commanding the destruction of all boats built on any foreign model, and forbade the building of vessels of any size or shape superior to that of the present junk. By the imperial decree of 1637, Japanese who had left their country and been abroad were not allowed to return, death being the penalty for traveling abroad, studying foreign lan

guages, introducing foreign customs or believing in Christianity.

About this time all junks were ordered to be built with open sterns and large square rudders, unfit for ocean navigation, as it was hoped thereby to keep the people isolated within their own islands. Once forced from the coast by stress of weather, these rudders are soon washed away, when the vessels naturally fall off into the trough of the sea and roll their masts out. The number, of which no record exists which have thus suffered during the last nineteen centuries, must be very large, probably many thousand vessels.

(Brooks on Japanese Wrecks.)

TOPOGRAPHY.

The topograpical features of Japan must of a necessity vary a great deal. Being a country wholly composed of islands, large and small, the physical features of mountains, valleys, lakes and streams, have not that extent and grandeur of older and larger countries. The rivers for this reason are not long, broad or of very great depth, and therefore inland navigation is not much in vogue. However some of the mountain ranges are very prominent, notably the volcanic peak of Fugisan, with an altitude of 14,000 feet, in the regions of perpetual snow.

EARTHQUAKES.

Geologically, the position of most of the islands is of so uneasy a foundation that a popular tradition of the Japanese, locates their empire on the back of a huge catfish. To the uneasy and angry

motions of this fish they attribute their numerous earthquakes-as many as eighty of these temblors sometimes visiting them in one day. They are frequent, and at times very disastrous, the danger from fire in their wooden cities often adding to the horrors. On this subject a recent writer says: Besides the outbursts of frequent volcanic eruptions, no country is more frequently visited by destructive earthquakes. Kæmpfer enumerates six active volcanic mountains. Earthquakes, he says, are so frequent that the natives regard them no more than Europeans do ordinary storms. In 1855 a succession of earthquakes took place and lasted forty days, causing the destruction the best portion of the city of Yeddo, and the death, it is alleged, of 200,000 of its inhabitants. In 1783 the eruption of a volcano on the island of Kiusui, accompanied by violent earthquakes, destroyed in a single province twenty-seven villages. Another volcanic eruption took place in the same island in 1793, accompanied by earthquakes, which continued from March to June, and caused, according to official returns, the death of 53,000 persons, with a proportional destruction of property. On the 23d of December, 1854, an earthquake occurred which was felt on the whole coast. Of the town of Simoda, only a few temples and private edifices that stood on elevated ground escaped destruction. The fine city of Osacka, on the southeastern side of Niphon, was completely destroyed, and the capital, Yeddo, did not escape without injury. On the 10th of November, 1855, an earthquake at Yeddo is said to have caused the destruction of 100,000 dwellings and fifty-four temples and the death of 30,000 persons.

(Homan's Cyclo. of Com. and Nav.)

METALLURGY.

The empire produces all the valuable minerals in abundance, as also a good bituminous coal, which they turn into coke and use extensively in working the metals.

They are the masters of many secret processes in mineralogy and metallurgy, and in the inlaying of metals, one on the other, much used in the ornamentation of their bronzes, mingling gold, copper and silver in the most delicate and intricate designs, have never been equalled in Europe or America. In modeling in wax, to receive the clayey covering afterwards, preparatory to casting the designs in bronze or other metals, they show a knowledge and skill seldom equalled.

FLORA.

The vegetable productions of Japan are for the most part common to temperate regions. Timber, however, is so scarce that no one is permitted to cut down a tree without permission from the magistrate, and only on condition of planting a young one in its stead. The most common forest trees are the fir and cedar, the latter growing to an immense size, being sometimes more than eighteen feet in diameter. In the northern portion of the empire two species of oak are found, which differ from those of Europe. The acorns of one kind are boiled and eaten, and are said to be both palatable and nutritious. The mulberry tree grows wild, and in abundance; the varnish tree (rhus vernix) abounds in many districts. In the south the bamboo cane, though a tropical plant, is found. either in the wild or cultivated state, and is much used