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

in their manufactories. The camphor tree is of great value here, and lives to a great age. Siebold visited one which Kampfor described as having been seen by him 135 years before. It was healthy and covered with foliage, and had a circumference of fifty feet. The country people make the camphor from a decoction of the root and stems, cut into small pieces. Chestnut and walnut trees are both found. Among the fruit trees are the orange, lemon, fig, plum, apple, cherry and apricot.

(Homans.)

As agriculturists the Japanese are fully equal to the Chinese; in fact, using all the methods of irrigation, rotation of crops, the use of manures, so much in vogue in the older country. They are experts in the handling of the silk-worm, turning its cocoon into all the forms of valuable silk; while in the growth and cultivation of the tea-plant they are unsurpassed.

INHABITANTS.

They are far advanced in horticulture as well, and far ahead of other nations in their methods of urging on or retarding the growth of plants. Thus the Camellia Japonica may be seen from a very diminutive growth to a tree forty feet in height, while the pine, cedar, and fruit, are represented in trees of mature growth, from two inches in height up to the natural growth common in other countries.

The Japanese are bold and daring mariners, and the only race in these regions who pursue the whale. They make many voyages to Kamptchatka and the Aleutian isles, making light of heat and cold, or hardships of any kind. It has only been through the re

straint placed upon them by the severest of laws, that has prevented these people from being known to the maritime world centuries ago, and taking their place amongst the most enterprising and boldest of navigators.

The many bays and inlets indenting the island shores, swarm with shoals of fish, and they, with the lakes and rivers, are covered by aquatic birds, affording an easy living to the poorer classes. Pearls of great value abound along the shores; while the shell, much valued here, is worked up in a thousand ways as ornaments and inlaid work.

The people are an active, vigorous race, and very intelligent; and although shut up for so many centuries, isolated from the outer world, they are kind and hospitable to strangers, carrying their courtesy and politeness to the greatest extreme. Since the American treaty in 1854 they have steadily improved in shipping and manufactures, freely admitting all our arts of peace and war to be introduced among them. At the pres ent time, young Japanese of the better classes are to be found traveling in all parts of the world or attend-. ing the colleges and academies of the most advanced nations, diligently and intelligently seeking all that may advance or benefit their native land.

TEA PLANT.

A brief description of the tea plant, so assiduously and profitably cultivated by the Asiatic races, may interest the general reader.

is

The tea plant (Thea Sinensis), in a wild state, a bushy shrub, often reaching to the dignity of a tree in size and foliage. In the cultivated state, in China

and Japan, the plants are held back, being pruned down and not allowed to grow higher than three to five feet. Botanists of to-day rank it as Cammellia Thea genus, same as the Cammellia Japonica; also bearing a close resemblance to the Cammellia Sasanqua, introduced in Europe and America from China in 1811.

The plant resembles the japonica somewhat in its buds and flowers, the leaves differing in being longer, narrower and less shiny. It is an evergreen, and affords from three to four crops a year, the second picking being considered the best. The leaves are picked altogether by hand, when they are conveyed to drying floors, the green varieties being dried on copper plates over slow fires, which results (not, however, without the assistance of being rolled between the hands of the laborers) in the closely-curled form found in nearly all teas. It has been stated that the green variety owes its color to the chemical action of the copper on the leaves. This is erroneous, as the black varieties are picked from the same plant, and receive their color from being allowed to go through a slow fermenting process, which changes the leaves of the same plant from green to black. From the dry-houses the tea is packed in lead-lined cases, or put up in paper packages, as we see it in the markets of the world.

Tea was first discovered in China, growing in a wild state, in the eighth century. In the fourteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Te-Tsong, corresponding to the year 783 of our era, we find an impost levied on tea. Japanese writers state that the plant was first brought to their country from China in the ninth century.

Of Europeans, the Portuguese were probably the first to discover its uses-in 1517. An Englishman—