Nine years in Nipon. Sketches of Japanese life and manners

Preface

So many works have of late been written on Japan that perhaps the best apology for publishing a new one is that the public seem to wish for more.

My aim has been to give in language as free as possible from pedantic jargon such an account of Nipon and its people as may instruct, without unduly boring my readers. A great deal more might have been written than I have here attempted, but fortunately strict limits were imposed upon me, and I sincerely hope that useful and interesting things only have found admission.

I have been obliged to omit, most reluctantly, a large section in which I intended to give some account of the religious and moral systems which prevail in Japan, but, should this work succeed in finding a moderate measure of public approbation, I hope soon to expand my notes on these subjects into a separate volume.

CHAPTER I. — Introductory

The Land — Its Contour — The Four Great Islands — Inland Sea — Rivers and Canals — Coast — Lighthouses — Harbours — The Black Stream — Climate — Flora and Fauna — Races, .... 9

CHAPTER II. — First Impressions of Yokohama

Tropical Fruits and Icy Decks — An Economical Lighthouse — ^Japanese Horror of Paint — Human Vultures — Yokohama and Its People — A Mushroom Settlement — Bird's-eye View — No Loafers — Human Hansoms — Building Stone — Straw Clothing — Tribute to "Tootsicums " — A Motley Crowd, 25

CHAPTER III.— A Run on the Tokio Railway

Granny and the Engine — A Solid Road — Lady Smokers — Paddy Fields and Egrets — Fuji, the Peerless Mountain — A Clerical Cyclist — Quiet Resting Places — An Unpicturesque Metropolis — Silent Streets — Musical Groans, ....-.-. 37

CHAPTER IV.— Street Scenes

Shadow Pictures — Street Names — Esthetic Mud-pies — Kite Flying — A Hint for Arctic Explorers — Fishy Conduct of an English Professor — The Queen's English — A Japanese Crowd — A Baby Cook Shop, --. .- 46

CHAPTER v.— Life in Tokio

New Friends — Sir Harry Parkes — Mine Inn and its Master — A Hyper- Calvinistic Parrot — Plague of Frogs and Students — New Mode of "Running a Restaurant" — The "Great Workman" and his Little Ways — Charm against Leaks — Pic-nic and Fireworks — A New Mode of Signalling — Charm for Finding Drowned Bodies — A Japanese Tower of Siloam — Christmas in the Far East, - - 62

CHAPTER VI. — A Consultation in the Hills

A Rembrandtesque Scene — Novel Style of Drag — Daybreak on the Plains — A Remorseful Knight — Wayside Tea-houses — A Formidable Ferry — Buddha in Bronze — Presbyterian Church in the Hills — Dining in Public — A Doctor of the Old School — Scotch Service amongst Silk — Utility of Yawning, .... 76

CHAPTER VII. — A Consultation in the Hills {Continued)

A Charming Bedroom — Landscape Gardening in Miniature — Duck's Eggs and Duty — Some World-forgotten Ones — Doctors sometinies differ — A Hint for Pious Busy-bodies — Religious Radishes — Tincture of Snake— Rays of Buddha— Midnight in a Forest— "Resources of Civilization" — A Suspicious Case — Ho^^y versus Timidity— Loving the Darkness, 86

X.

Contents.

CHAPTER VIIL— MiTAKE San— The Sacred Mount of THE Three Peaks.

Bad Roads and Better Language — Spiders and Beetles — A Japanese Scarecrow — Night Storm in a Forest — A Dispirited Coolie — Sunday Quiet and Questioning — Buddhist Teaching and Modern Science — Passports and Preaching — A Picturesque School — Sick Cicadas — Art and Nature — Brambles and Barefeet, ... 94

CHAPTER IX. — Pilgrimage to Fugi the Peerless

A Village Festival — Butterflies and Cicadas — A Noisy Inn — River Scene — Silk — Dining on Hot Water — Mimicry in Spiders — A Mountain Pass — Tea and Tattle — A Tragic Pool — Dissolving Views — Spindle Whorl — An Exciting and Ludicrous Scene — Limbs of the Law — Curious Bridge — Pious Parishioners and a Prudent Rector, 107

CHAPTER X. — Pilgrimage to Fugi the Peerless ( G?;^//;/?^^^)

Pretty Tree Frogs — Ancient Trees — Buddha-faced Woman — Peep into a Village School — Ai Fish — Sweet Scenery — Awe Inspiring Walk —Lava "Froth" and its Use— Mild Martyrdom— A Heavenly Vision — Mountain Lake — Volcanic Prairie Flowers — An Esthetic Jinrikisha Man— A Statuesque Stoat — Novel Tail-piece— Patriotic Bias — Fans versus Flies, - - - - - - - - I2I

CHAPTER XI.— In a Cottage by the Sea

A Fair Breeze and Holiday Aspirations — Voyage of Discovery — Crabs and Canal Banks— A Marine Tunnel-borer — Snakes and Frogs — Stone Net-sinkers— Koi Fish— A Lovely Marvel of the Sea— A Dying Cuttle-fish, 136

CHAPTER XII. — Trip to the Tomb of Iyeyasu

Unpromising Start — Bridge of Japan — Suburbs of Tokio — An Amorous Ascetic — Flowering Palm Trees — A Brazen Serpent — Hotel Gossip and Pagan Devotions— Wonderful Avenue — Primitive Ploughs — Weeping Cherry Tree — A Quiet Priest and His Garden — Shrines and Saints — Uncountable Buddhas and Nature's Cynicism, - 147

CHAPTER XIII. — Nagasaki and the. Inland Sea

Yedo Bay — Matsuwa's Sacrifice — Rapid Currents— Fair Islands — Atmospheric Effects — A Tight Fit — Shimonoseki — The Resources of Christian Civilization — A Big Indemnity — Grand Sea Scene and Mai de Af^r— Nagasaki Harbour — Papenberg — Story of the Martyrs — Chinese Money Changers — Tortoise-shell Work — Schools and Missions, 164

CHAPTER XIV. — Ten Days on the Tokaido

On the Osaka Railway— Cold Water Cure for Sin— A Kaleidoscopic Cook— Hints for Travellers— Glimpses of Kioto, the Old Capital —Buddhists and their Bells— A Lantern-lit City and a Star-lit Hedge Salamanders and Singing Frogs— Snake-baskets and River-banks— On the Tokaido— Hakone Pass — A Volcanic Cup and some of its contents, I73

Contents. xi

CHAPTER XV. — Japanese Philosophy of Flowers

Simplicity of Japanese Bouquets — Artless Art — A Floral Calendar — Flower and Tree Markets — Fruitless Sprays of Blossom — Place of Honour and its Decoration — Allusive Obscurity — "Heaven, Earth and Man" — Symbolism in Flowers — Art Training of the People, 190

CHAPTER XVL— The Language of Nipon.

A Japanese Writer's Lamentation — Some Common Misconceptions — Pijin English and its Uses — The Lingua Franca of the Far East — A Big Alphabet — Chinese Tones — Iconographs or Picture- Words — No Declensions, Conjugations, nor Pronouns — Imperfection of the Colloquial — Need of Linguistic Development — Capacity for Combinations — Suspected Sanskrit Affinities — Etiquette and Honorifics — Future of the Colloquial Language, - 201

CHAPTER XVIL— Schools.

General Diffusion of Education in Japan — Educational Influence of Buddhism — Statistics — Duration of School Period — Genuine Accomplishments — Heroes of the School — Pens, Ink, and Paper — Introduction of Arabic Numerals— A Japanese Writer on Girls' Schools, 20S

CHAPTER XVin. — A Glimpse of the Land of Neglected Education.

The Carlyle and Thackeray of Japan — Bakin's Idea of the Genuine Gentleman — Geography of the Land — The Natives and their Strange Ways — Bad Schoolboys in Japan — Apprenticeship — Coddling and its Consequences — A Family Scene — Breaking the Indentures — On the Streets — Moral, 217 I

I

CHAPTER XIX.— My Garden and its Guests.

A Dull Look-out — From Chaos to Cosmos — Shower of Frogs (?) — A Rare Hedge of Roses — How the Japanese treat Sick Trees — Painters and Pine-trees — Pine-boring Insect — Some Curious Spiders — A Fable fresh from Nature — Ants and Aphides — An Entomological Pharisee^Nest of the Mantis — Sons of the Prophets — A Flight of Dragon-flies — Moles and Worms — Curious Superstition — Committee Fever and Dame Nature's Soothing Syrup, - 22^

CHAPTER XX. — Japanese Art in Relation to Nature.

Absence of Degraded Conventionalism — An Exception Proving the Rule— Outlines of Fuji — The Bamboo in Art — Simplicity in Composition — Flight of Birds — Spider's Web in Wood- work — Want of Truth in Greek Art — A Japanese Picture Gallery, - - - 238

CHAPTER XXL — The Philosophy of Heaven and Earth

in a Nut-shell.

Why Some Birds Fly Well and Others Badly — Guesses at Protective Imitation — A New Version of the Sphynx — Analogies of Nature and Man — Casting Away of Passion — The True Gentleman — The Eight Virtues — Some Wise Sayings, ------ 250 xii. Contents.

CHAPTER XXII.— Homes of the People.

Moated Castles in Miniature — Bird Rest or Torii — Grim Gateways — Keeping the Wolf from the Door — Primitive Stairways — Pebbled Courtyard — Hara-kiri, or the " Happy Despatch " — Wells and Water — A Poet and the " Morning Glory" — Paper Lanterns, Pillows, etc. — Mosquito Nets — Rats and Cats — The End of the Home— "Fire!" 257

CHAPTER XXIII. — How the Japanese Amuse Themselves.

Artistic Toys — Cheapness, a Hygienic Advantage — Gardening in Miniature — Archaisms of the Toy World — Tough Picture-Books — Early Kinder Gartens — Dumb Oratory — Puppet Shows and the the Drama — Wrestlers and their Rewards, - - - - 271

CHAPTER XXIV. — Japanese Manners and Customs — Negative and Positive.

Degraded Religions — Origin of some Fetishes — Superstitious Customs, 280

CHAPTER XXV.— General Survey : What I Think of Japan.

Growth of Population — Promise of Improved Physique — "Bafe" Tea and Blankets — A Reasonable People — Over-Legislation about Shipping — Usurpation of the Shoguns — Growth of the Daimiates — Questionings — Japanese Whigs and Tories — D.read of Socialism — The Clan Unit — Moral Progress — Revisal of Treaties, - - 291

NINE YEARS IN NIPON.

CHAPTER I Introductory

The Land — Its Contour — The Four Great Islands — Inland Sea — Rivers amd Canals — Coast — Lighthouses — Harbours — The Black Stream — Climate — Flora and Fatina — Races.

fl

APAN is the name usually given by English writers to a fertile and populous group of four great islands associated with a number of smaller ones, which lies in the far East almost where our artificial day begins, and whose people may perhaps therefore, not unreasonably, hope to form a natural link between those ^^ of East and West. Its area is rather '^ greater than that of the United Kingdom, and may be about 1 50,000 square miles, much of which still lies waste and uncultivated, though apparently capable of tillage. About one-fourth is forest land. Japan is washed on the east by the sluggish rollers of the Pacific, and on the west by the seas of Japan and lO Nine Years in Nipon.

Okhotsk. The most westerly point is within an hour or two's sail of the Asiatic continent, and eastwards it is about 5000 miles distant from San Francisco. Comprising the crescent-shaped mainland, or largest island, which is not definitely named like the others — Kiushiu, Shikoku, Yesso, the Kurile Islands, and many others— it lies stretched from 24° to 50° 40' N. lat, and from 124° to 156° 38' E. long,— that is, speaking roughly, it lies diagonally in, and north of, the sub-tropical belt, and has northern points corresponding with Paris and Newfoundland on the one hand and southern ones placed like Cairo, Madeira, and the Bermudas ; or again, it corresponds pretty nearly in latitude with the eastern coast line of the United States, adding Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ; and the contrasts of climate in the latter island and in Florida are probably not more remarkable than those which are observed in the extreme northern and southern regions of Japan.

By the almost U-shaped Suez canal route the distance is nearly 1 2,000 miles from Liverpool, but by the slightly arched San Francisco route the distance is greatly lessened, much of it being practically still further shortened by railway so that the journey can be accomplished in a month.

The general shape of the mass formed by the four great islands, which lie closely together separated only by the narrowest straits, has often been poetically compared by native writers to the curved form of a dragon-fly in flight. Perhaps to the common-place mind of the western barbarian it may suggest the less romantic idea of a hen's foot with partly outstretched claws !

Introdtictory

I r

SEA OF J A PA N

The four islands are —

1. KlUSHlU (''the nine counties"), of an irregular double-wedge shape ; its obtuse wedge lying to the north and the acuter one to the south, the mass being placed nearly at right angles to the so-called mainland. The Bungo Nada, a dangerous strait opening from the Inland Sea into the Pacific, separates it from the next, or

2. Shikoku (" the four provinces "), an irregular crescent lying southward from and parallel to the western part of the " mainland," having its concavity turned southward to the Pacific, while its convexity forms the southern boundary of the Inland Sea.

3. The (strictly-speaking) unnamed HONDO, or HON- SHIU, or mainland is considerably larger than the other three islands combined. It is almost divided into two portions by the large fresh water Lake Biwa and two corresponding deep indentations on the north and south coasts respectively, or the bays of Wakasa and Owari. The western or smaller portion lying east-west is something like a human foot with its toes pointing westward, the hollow of the arch forming the north boundary of the Inland Sea. The remaining portion is somewhat like an inverted axe, its handle pointing due north and the blade touching the western portion just described.

4. Yesso, the northernmost island, lies close to the mainland, being separated from it by Tsugaru strait, which can be crossed in an hour or so. It bears no very fanciful resemblance to a gigantic ray fish, steering eastward, with contorted tail pointing to the mainland.

The chain of smaller islands trends from S.W., by N.E., forming a broken sinuous line with Saghalien — no longer politically a part of Japan — and the Aleutian islands.

Saghalien was a possession of some value, and in 1875 was ceded to Russia in return for the comparatively worthless Kurile islands, where sea-otters are obtained. The act of cession was very unpopular in Japan. The island is said now to contain about 4000 exiles chiefly of the male sex. They are sent by sea from Odessa, and the fatality on the way has been great.

The Japanese government seem to have a fairly good claim to the small but interesting group of Loochoo (Liu-chiu) islands, but it is hotly contested by China. The people have more natural affinity in language and customs to Japan than to China, and would be more benefited by control from Tokio than from Pekin.

The Bonins, called Ogasawara, were recently ceded by the British to Japan.

The most striking geographical feature of Japan is the Inland Sea, which is certainly one of the beauties of the world. It is a long irregularly-shaped arm of the sea, with tides and rapid currents, of variable width and no great depth, studded with innumerable thickly-wooded islands. It may be entered from the Pacific by two straits, — Linschoten strait and Bungo nada, the navigation of the latter in certain seasons being especially dangerous and difficult. On the northern side the Inland Sea is entered from the Sea of Japan through the strait of Shimonoseki, which very greatly resembles the Kyles of Bute in its narrow sinuous passage and surrounding scenery of most romantic beauty. This is practically the shortest way from Yokohama to Nagasaki, Mr. Griffis to the contrary notwithstanding, and is the route now taken by the mail steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. This little question, however, led, in 1864, to much bloodshed and subsequent diplomacy, of which I shall have something to say in another chapter.

The crescent of the narrow mainland, if the largest of the islands may be so called, presents its convex side to the Pacific Ocean, while the concavity is turned towards the sea of Japan and the newly opened kingdom of Corea. It is pretty clearly divided into somewhat irregular north-western and south-eastern slopes, with well-marked climatic differences, by a grand central range of great height, broken here and there by the strongly marked individuality of a still living, or but recently extinct, volcano, the whole forming a rough back-bone flanked with many spur-like ranges, water-carved, and often beautifully terraced along the river valleys, but nowhere, so far as has yet been observed, showing any direct effects of glacial action.

The Central main line of railway is intended to run along the flanks of this rugged crest, far enough inland to be safe from attack by sea or destruction by flooding of the rivers, whose shifting beds form no very good formation for the long viaducts which would be required in another situation. Most of the larger rivers in the mainland curiously run a course tending almost north or south. The general contour of the land — its great narrowness — is such, indeed, that they must needs be short, but this direction gives them the greatest length possible. There are brief periods of excessively heavy rain, and so they are often then in fierce flood, carrying everything before them and leaving great plains of water-worn stones and gravel around their mouths, on which, after a time, soil has sometimes accumulated and great forests have grown. From their extreme shortness of course the chief commercial cities of Japan, even when placed on the banks of broad rivers, are always near enough to " taste the salt breath of the great wide sea."

The geological structure of many of the rocks has also been favourable to the formation of numerous most picturesque waterfalls, which attract the traveller and have from ancient times been warmly admired and eulogised by native artists and poets. The rivers at a short distance from their outlets are rendered navigable chiefly by the courage, enterprise, and ingenuity of the boatmen, who are amongst the most daring and skilful in the world.

Till recently little has been done to deepen river channels or protect their banks except in the interest of agriculture. In the lower reaches where broad alluvial plains of great fertility have been formed they are frequently intersected by numerous shallow canals for the most part of comparatively recent excavation, but some of them are many centuries old, and these, in the general absence of good roads, have been of immense service in keeping up cross communication throughout the country.

The detritus brought down by the heavy rains is, in some parts of the country, enormous, and is the result of the rapid weathering of certain exposed and easily disintegrated rocks. Those are nearly devoid of vegetation, and masses may be seen peeling off and visibly crumbling into dust. The beds of the rivers and the bordering tracts on each side in thoseregions have thus sometimes actually been raised above the average level of the surrounding country, and in crossing the bed of the river you have to climb up an embankment which has often been strengthened artificially by means of long " snake baskets " of bamboo, afterwards to be described.

Such levees^ as geologists call them, are not unknown in other countries. They have been described to me by travellers as being common in the north of China, and there are examples in Italy and in the valley of the Mississippi.

One or two of the rivers of Japan, such as the Sumida — on the banks of which Tokio, the capital, lies, and which is almost as broad as the Thames at Westminster — are worthy of note, and at the present day many a fair modern craft on Western lines may be seen, under the cheerful tap of hammers, taking shape on their banks. Here it may be mentioned that any particular appelation given to a river in Japan holds good only for a limited part of its course, so that it changes its name perhaps four or five times from its birth amongst the cloud-capped, pine-shaded mountains to its final nirvana in the ocean. For example, the river which passes through the city of Osaka changes its name four times within the city limits!

The wide bays along the south-eastern coast are for the most part shallow, and a very slight elevation of the land would vastly increase the areas of the bordering plains, which are already very extensive. Such elevations have already notably taken place, as is shown by the presence of naturally deposited strata of recent sea-shells far above high water mark, while there are reliable indications that considerable elevation of the land has taken place even Vv'ithin the historic period.

In spite of their shallowness and rapid silting, some of the rivers of Japan are capable of being so improved as to admit of the passage of steam vessels of the largest size, and there are fine natural inlets and one or two spacious bays, which form natural harbours of great excellence.

To the wants of a large and progressive society, which nature has thus shown her readiness to favour, the Japanese Government are every year becoming more and more alive. What is still more promising, the people themselves, greatly more active than their neighbours in China, show a laudable desire to initiate and carry out such local improvements as may promise to secure the fullest advantage to the community from nature's lavish gifts.

One of the most interesting and characteristic features of the Industrial Exhibition held in Tokio, in 1882, was the splendid display of local maps and models illustrative of achieved or proposed undertakings in engineering, such as embankments, canals, breakwaters, etc. Many of them were of real value, showed scientific insight as to the economical application of ways and means, and were, as might have been expected, very attractive merely as works of art.

Owing to geologically recent elevations of land the coast is usually steep and even precipitous. Its chief natural features, such as sunken rocks, capes, straits, entrances to bays and harbours, and the mouths of rivers, are now well-marked out with beacons, lights or lighthouses of modern construction. Some of the latter are of superior merit, and speak eloquently to the approaching mariner of the progress made in the country since the recent Restoration. I sincerely hope, in the interests of science, that the lighthouse keepers may be encouraged to use the good opportunity they enjoy of observing and recording the flight of birds during their periods of migration ; while they might also, as has been proposed, assist in forming a cordon of meteorological observers which might give valuable warnings to fishermen and sailors of coming typhoons.

The government surveyors seem to have followed our own charts for the coastline to begin with, and they are proceeding rapidly and carefully to fill in all needful details as to the interior. At Yokoska, in Yedo Bay, where the chief docks are, the coast tide is said only to rise about four feet on an average. In spring tides it rarely exceeds six feet, and in general the height of the flood-tide is never very great.

In no mere Tennysonian dream, it may be said —

". . . The mist is drawn A lucid veil from coast to coast."

This renders navigation in summer dangerous and difficult, and fogs are deemed by experienced sailors to be the great scourge of Japan. Indeed, those malarious cloudbanks, laden with infectious germs, as they can almost now be proved to be, are probably as dangerous to the landsman as to the mariner. While the large area of land lying under shallow water during rice cultivation may have some share in the formation of those dangerous mists, we must seek for a wider and more general cause, and that is readily to be found in the great current (or rather currents) of warm water passing into a colder sea, which is called the Kiu'o sJiiwo, or Dark Tide or Current.*

The yearly evaporation at the tropics of fully fourteen or fifteen feet of ocean water, causes the great equatorial current of the Pacific which moves westward at first, then splits into two streams, one of which curves northward towards the colder waters of the sea of Japan, but gives off minor eddying currents running at 30 to 40 knots around the greater islands of the empire. Where the cold waters meet them condensation of the water-laden air takes place with the resulting formation of great cloud banks. The

*Not "Black River," as Eeclus translates it in The Ocean. (English edition, p. 82.)

water appears to be of a deep, almost indigo blue colour, whence the name given to the stream by the Japanese. Fish occur in great numbers where the arctic current of fresher, lighter, and cooler water meets the warm salt stream from the south amidst great commotion. And these seem to be attracted by the myriads of minute organisms which the water there contains. The analogy of this great current to our own Gulf Stream has been pointed out, and there can be no doubt as to its great influence on the climate of Japan. A difference of from 8 to 10 degrees centigrade may be observed in passing from its waters to the cold currents from the north, and the effect of this on the superjacent atmosphere is very marked. Sudden and severe changes of temperature are often noticed on the southern coasts of Japan, and even in Yedo Bay. They are evidently due to eddies or branch currents from the great streams of cold and warm waters which interweave themselves in the neighbourhood.

In the northern island, which is rapidly being *'colonised" since the Restoration, the extremes of temperature are somewhat greater than in England. In the vicinity of Tokio the winter is usually clear and mild, with occasional sharp frosts and heavy falls of snow. In summer the heat is intensely oppressive for three months or so. The mean temperature is of little practical importance. The thermometer not seldom records a heat of 88° to even 97° Fah. in the shade, and even at night the heat remains so high that sleep becomes impossible, the air being muggy and no breath of wind stirring. The greatest heat is usually from the middle of June to early in September, but there are often brief periods of hot weather even in

May. The cold in winter is much more severe on the north-western coasts, and the roads across the main island are often blocked with snow, so that communication is suspended for months.

In such a summary sketch as this, it is impossible to say almost anything of the fauna and flora of Japan. Thome gives China and Japan a botanical district to themselves. The useful bamboo flourishes in all parts of the land, sugar cane and the cotton plant grow in the southern parts, tea almost everywhere. The tobacco plant, hemp, maize or Indian corn, mulberry for silk-worm food, rice, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, potatoes, yams, are all cultivated. The beech, the oak, maples and pine trees, in rich variety ; azaleas, camelias, etc., grow in moor and forest. Some of the more characteristic plants are wistaria, salisburia, cryptomeria, chrysanthemums, and varieties of evergreens such as retinospora, now well known to all British gardeners. Many familiar wild flowers are to be gathered by hedgerow or mossy bank — such as violets, blue bells, forget-me-not, thyme, dandelion, and its allies. The woods are rich in ferns, amongst which the royal fern is conspicuous, orchids, creepers, lichens, mosses, fungi, and liverworts, while the aquatic flora is extensive. The beautiful lotus, though imported, may now fairly be considered as naturalised. There are many water-lilies, reeds, and rushes, some of which are of great utility.

The mammalia of Japan are not numerous. In ancient times, before the dawn of history, two species of dwarf elephants existed in the plains around Tokio. There are many monkeys (Macacus) in some parts, and even in extremely northern latitudes. Foxes abound, and are reverenced ; but it is said none are ever found in Shikoku. Wolves and bears are destructive in the north, and had at one time a more extensive field. There are wild antelopes, red deer, wild boars, raccoon dogs, badgers, otters, stoats, ferrets, bats (including a peculiar fruit bat), moles, shrews, and rats ; while the sea is specially rich in seals, sea-otters, and whales. The country has been found quite unsuitable for sheep, but goats thrive well, although not hitherto much favoured. Oxen are used for draught. Horses are small, but of fair quality, and the breed is being improved. The cats are often nearly tail-less. The dogs are of a low, half-wolfish breed. There are some three hundred birds known in Japan. Few of them are what we call song-birds, but the lark is at least one brilliant exception. Game birds are pretty plentiful, and are now protected.

Insects are very numerous — no traveller will dispute that — and Japan is now greatly courted by entomologists, who have done much within the last few years to increase our knowledge of the treasures Japan has to yield to science in that department. Locusts are often destructive, and mosquitoes are a great pest. Bees, the silk-worm, and the wax-insect are, however, highly appreciated.

There are several kinds of lizards, a great variety of frogs, seven or eight snakes, including a deadly cerastes, and two or three kinds of tortoise. Edible turtles abound in the Bonins. The crustaceans are numerous and interesting, and of fish there is extraordinary variety, especially of marine species. Oysters are excellent and in great quantity, and Americans can revel in clam chowder. Cuttle-fish often rival the monsters described by Victor Hugo.

Mr. Blakiston, who has given careful attention to the subject, notes that Japan contains, besides a peculiar fauna, other elements of a tropical and Eurasian character. He proposes to account for the first imported element, reptiles, insects, and bats, by the application of Darwin's ingenious supposition that drifted ancestors might reach such an island home through the aid of such a current as the Black Stream. The Eurasian larger mammalian element might reach Japan, Mr. Blakiston supposes, by the freezing over of the Tsugaru channel, which seems quite a reasonable idea. The fauna of the northern island Yesso thus stops abruptly at the channel which separates it from the rest of Japan ; and while many of the birds found on the mainland are peculiar to Japan, those found in Yesso are often identical with Siberio-Chinese species of the Asiatic continent.