“ Japanese rivers and lakes are the habitation of several—seven or eight—species of fresh-water crab (kani) , which live in holes on the shore and emerge in the daytime, often moving to considerable distances from their homes. Shrimps (kawa-ebi) also are found in the rivers and rice-fields. These shrimps as well as a large species of crab—mokuzō-gani—serve the people as an article of food, but the small crabs which live in holes have no recognized raison d’être. In Japan, as elsewhere, the principal crustacea are found in the sea. ”

“ The Pacific coast of the Japanese islands is more liable than the western shore to shocks disturbing a wide area. Apparent proof has been obtained that the shocks occurring in the Pacific districts originate at the bottom of the sea—the Tuscarora Deep is supposed to be the centre of seismic activity—and they are accompanied in most cases by tidal waves. It would seem that of late years Tajima, Hida, Kōzuke and some other regions in central Japan have enjoyed the greatest immunity, while Musashi (in which province Tōkyō is situated) and Sagami have been most subject to disturbance. ”

“ A terrible interest attaches to the last-named mountain, for, after having remained quiet so long as to lull the inhabitants of the neighbouring district into complete security, it suddenly burst into fierce activity on the 15th of July 1888, discharging a vast avalanche of earth and rock, which dashed down its slopes like an inundation, burying four hamlets, partially destroying seven villages, killing 461 people and devastating an area of 27 sq. ”

“ While there can be no doubt that the luxuriance of Japan’s flora is due to rich soil, to high temperature and to rainfall not only plentiful but well distributed over the whole year, the wealth and variety of her trees and shrubs must be largely the result of immigration. Japan has four insular chains which link her to the neighbouring continent. ”

“ Neither the lion nor the tiger is found. The true Carnivora are three only, the bear, the dog and the marten. Three species of bears are scientifically recognized, but one of them, the ice-bear (Ursus maritimus) , is only an accidental visitor, carried down by the Arctic current. In the main island the black bear (kuma, Ursus japonicus) alone has its habitation, but the island of Yezo has the great brown bear (called shi-guma, oki-kuma or aka-kuma) , the “grisly” of North America. The bear does not attract much popular interest in Japan. ”

“ The intervening sea being comparatively warm, this wind arrives at Japan having its temperature increased and carrying moisture which it deposits as snow on the western faces of the Japanese mountains. Crossing the mountains and descending their eastern slopes, the wind becomes less saturated and warmer, so that the formation of clouds ceases. Japan is emphatically a wet country so far as quantity of rainfall is concerned, the average for the whole country being 1570 mm. ”

“ Missing the perfume-laden air of the Occident, a visitor is prone to infer paucity of blossoms. But if some familiar European flowers are absent, they are replaced by others strange to Western eyes—a wealth of lespedeza and Indigo-fera ”

“ In the hill country on the borders of Ise, Owari, Mikawa and Tōtōmi, on the one side, and Omi, Mino and Shinano, on the other, granite frequently forms dark grey and much disintegrated rock-projections above schist and diluvial quartz pebbles. ”

“ Earthquakes.—Japan is subject to marked displays of seismic violence. One steadily exercised influence is constantly at work, for the shores bordering the Pacific Ocean are slowly though appreciably rising, while on the side of the Japan Sea a corresponding subsidence is taking place. Japan also experiences a vast number of petty vibrations not perceptible without the aid of delicate instruments. ”

“ Akagi-san, a circular range of peaks surrounding the basin of an old crater and rising Mountains of Kōzuke, Kai
and Shinano. to a height of 6210 ft.; the Haruna group, celebrated for scenic beauties, and Myogi-san, a cluster of pinnacles which, though not rising higher than 3880 ft., offer scenery which dispels the delusion that nature as represented in the classical pictures (bunjingwa) of China and Japan exists only in the artist’s imagination. ”

“ Mineral Springs.—The presence of so many active volcanoes is partially compensated by a wealth of mineral springs. Since many of these thermal springs possess great medicinal value, Japan may become one of the world’s favourite health-resorts. There are more than a hundred spas, some hot, some cold, which, being easily accessible and highly efficacious, are largely visited by the Japanese. ”

“ Sea-snakes occasionally make their way to Japan, being carried thither by the Black Current (Kuro Shiwo) and the monsoon, but they must be regarded as merely fortuitous visitors. There are 10 species of land-snakes (hebi) , among which one only (the mamushi, or Trigonocephalus Blomhoffi) is venomous. The others for the most part frequent the rice-fields and live upon frogs. The largest is the aodaisho (Elaphis virgatus) , which sometimes attains a length of 5 ft., but is quite harmless. ”

“ General characteristics are hot and humid though short summers, and long, cold and clear winters. The equatorial currents produce conditions differing from those existing at corresponding latitudes on the neighbouring continent. In Kiūshiū, Shikoku and the southern half of the main island, the months of July and August alone are marked by oppressive heat at the sea-level, while in elevated districts a cool and even bracing temperature may always be found, though the direct rays of the sun retain distressing power. ”

“ If, on the one hand, huge stones are transported hundreds of miles from seashore or river-bed where, in the lapse of long centuries, waves and cataracts have hammered them into strange shapes, and if the harmonizing of their various colours and the adjustment of their forms to environment are studied with profound subtlety, so the training and tending of the trees and shrubs that keep them company require much taste and much toil. ”

“ During the whole of the Mesozoic era Japan appears to have lain on or near the margin of the Asiatic continent, and the marine deposits are confined for the most part to the eastern side of the islands.
The igneous rocks occur at several geological horizons, but the great volcanic eruptions did not begin until the Tertiary period. The existing volcanoes belong to four separate arcs or chains. On the south is the arc of the Luchu islands, which penetrates into Kiū Shiū. In the centre there is the arc of the Izu-no-Shichito islands, which is continued into Hondo along the Fossa Magna. ”

“ By these paths the germs of Asiatic plants were carried over to join the endemic flora of the country, and all found suitable homes amid greatly varying conditions of climate and physiography.
Fauna.—Japan is an exception to the general rule that continents are richer in fauna than are their neighbouring islands. It has been said with truth that “an industrious collector of beetles, butterflies, neuroptera, &c., finds a greater number of species in a circuit of some miles near Tōkyō than are exhibited by the whole British Isles.” ”

“ From the 10th century onwards the art of landscape gardening steadily grew into a science, with esoteric as well as exoteric aspects, and with a special vocabulary. The underlying principle is to reproduce nature’s scenic beauties, all the features being drawn to scale, so that however restricted the space, there shall be no violation of proportion. Thus the artificial lakes and hills, the stones forming rockeries or simulating solitary crags, the trees and even the bushes are all selected or manipulated so as to fall congruously into the general scheme. ”

“ To a height of some 1500 ft. the slopes of the mountain are cultivated; a grassy moorland stretches up the next 2500 ft.; then follows a forest, the upper edge of which climbs to an altitude of nearly 8000 ft., and finally there is a wide area of ashes and scoriae. There is entire absence of the Alpine plants found abundantly on the summits of other high mountains in Japan, a fact due, doubtless, to the comparatively recent activity of the volcano. The ascent of Fuji presents no difficulties. ”

“ Diatomaceous earth exists at several places in Yezo. In the alluvium which covers all, the remains have been discovered of several species of elephant, which, according to Dr Edmund Naumann, are of Indian origin. The most common eruptive rock is andesite. Such rocks as basalt, diorite and trachyte are comparatively rare. Quartz porphyry, quartzless porphyry, and granite are largely developed.” Drs von Richthofen and Rein discuss the subject in greater detail. They have pointed out that in the mountain system of Japan there are three main lines. ”

“ One tree occupies the whole time of a gardener for about ten days. The details are endless, the results delightful. But it has to be clearly understood that there is here no mention of a flower-garden in the Occidental sense of the term. ”

“ With the exception of the dog-days and the dead of winter, there is no season when flowers cease to be an object of attention to the Japanese, nor does any class fail to participate in the sentiment. There is similar enthusiasm in the matter of gardens. ”

“ The Pescadores Islands afford the best anchorage in this part of Japan.
Mountains.—The Japanese islands are traversed from north to south by a range of mountains which sends out various lateral branches. Lofty summits are separated by comparatively low passes, which lie at the level of crystalline rocks and schists constituting the original uplands upon which the summits have been piled by volcanic action. The scenery among the mountains is generally soft. ”

“ From 500 to 600 ft. is supposed to be the depth of the crater. There are neither sulphuric exhalations nor escapes of steam at present, and it would seem that this great volcano is permanently extinct. But experience in other parts of Japan shows that a long quiescent crater may at any moment burst into disastrous activity. Within the period of Japan’s written history several eruptions are recorded the last having been in 1707, when the whole summit burst into flame, rocks were shattered, ashes fell to a depth of several inches even in Yedo (Tōkyō) , 60 m. ”

“ These they call respectively the “southern schist range,” the “northern schist range,” and the “snow range,” the last consisting mainly of old crystalline massive rocks. The rocks predominating in Japan fall also into three groups. They are, first, plutonic rocks, especially granite; secondly, volcanic rocks, chiefly trachyte and dolerite; and thirdly, palaeozoic schists. On the other hand, limestone and sandstone, especially of the Mesozoic strata, are strikingly deficient. The strike of the old crystalline rocks follows, in general, the main direction of the islands (S.W. to N.E.) . ”

“ He catches them by means of a rod smeared with bird-lime, and then tying a fine string under their wings, he flies them at its end. Spiders abound, from a giant species to one of the minutest dimensions, and the tree-bug is always ready to make a destructive lodgment in any sickly tree-stem. ”

“ Already in 1882, Dunker in his Index Molluscorum Maris Japonici enumerated nearly 1200 species of marine molluscs found in the Japanese archipelago, and several others have since then been added to the list. As for the land and fresh-water molluscs, some 200 of which are known, they are mainly kindred with those of China and Siberia, tropical and Indian forms being exceptional. There are 57 species of Helix (maimaitsuburi, dedemushi, katatsumuri or kwagyū) and 25 of Clausilia (kiseru-gai or pipe-snail) , including the two largest snails in Japan, namely the Cl. ”