world is indebted for its still very imperfect knowledge of the geology of Japan.

The backbone of the country consists of metamorphic rocks gneiss, crystalline schists, serpentine, and marble-which are discovered everywhere in great masses, but are best studied in Shikoku. Overlying these are thick Paleozoic strata-probably of the Silurian or Devonian formation-consisting of clay-slate, graywacke, quartzite, and limestone. The Carboniferous formation is represented by limestone, and by the coal-measures of Yezo. The Permian seems to be entirely unrepresented in Yezo, but Rein seems to have found indications of the occurrence of the lower New Red Sandstones on the main island. Mesozoic strata of the Jurassic formation exist in Kaga, while the Cretaceous formation is exemplified by the coal-measures of Takashima, by the gray-white granular and micaceous sandstones of that vicinity, and in Yezo by certain Cretaceous clays. Tertiary and Post-Tertiary conglomerates, sandstone, clay-slate, peat, stratified volcanic tuffs rich in coal, lignite, and fossil plants, fringe the country in many places. The oldest eruptions were of granite, which is very widespread.

Japan is not specially rich in minerals, contrary to the views expressed by early geologists. Iron and coal are the most plentiful; next come copper and antimony, gold, silver, lead, tin, zinc, graphite, and petroleum. The Japanese seem to have been entirely unacquainted with the useful or even the precious metals until after contact with the Chinese and the incoming of the arts, sciences, letters, and religion from China. Silver was first discovered and worked in the year 674, copper in 698, and ten years later, in imitation of the Chinese 'cash,' a copper coinage was introduced, a fact commemorated in the name of the reign in which this occurred-Wa-dō ('Japanese Copper') (708-714). Gold was discovered in 749. The lodestone had become known somewhat earlier in 713.

Coal is found in many places, from Formosa to Yezo. The best is that of Takashima (where the seams are 14 feet thick and extend under the sea), Karatsu, Miike, and other places in the island of Kiushiu; at Kelung (q.v.) in Formosa; and at Poronai in Yezo. In 1905 the output (exclusive of that of Formosa) was 11,630,000 tons, against 3,200,000 tons in 1891. As already indicated, most of it belongs to the Tertiary formations. Iron is found chiefly as magnetic iron ore, and, as iron-sand, exists in nearly all the provinces. In 1905 the production amounted to 48,444 tons (including pig iron and steel). Copper seems to have been plentiful from the very first. It is said that from 1609 to 1858 no less than 533,332,000 pounds were exported by the Dutch. The product in 1905 amounted to 33,710 tons. Three silver ores are found, besides galena. The first discovery of silver was on the island of Tsushima, half-way between Kiushiu and Korea. It is now worked in many places in Shikoku, and in Hondo from Settsu to Mutsu in the north. In 1905 the product amounted to 2,945,288 ounces.

Gold exists chiefly (1) in the alluvial sands and gravels of Osumi, in Kiushiu, and at several places in Yezo; and (2) in auriferous quartz in Satsuma, Koshin, Rikuchiu in Hondo, and at Aikawa, on the island of Sado, in the Sea of Japan. In 1905 the total product was 106,256 ounces. Several gold-mines are also worked near

Kelung, in Formosa. The other mineral products in 1905 were: Lead, 2255 tons; antimony, 286 tons; tin, 25% tons; manganese, 11,162 tons; mercury, 769 pounds; sulphur, 152,823 tons; iron pyrites, 24,919 tons; zinc, 674 tons. The sulphur supply is practically inexhaustible. Petroleum is obtained at Nagaoka and many other places, but the output is far from being enough to supply the needs of the country. In 1905 it amounted to 67,153,106 gallons. The total mineral production of Japan amounted in 1904 to $29,123,000. It is interesting to note that petroleum was discovered by the Japanese in the Province of Etchigo as early as 668. Marble, granite, and other building-stones exist in different parts of the country, but are at present little used in building. The number of persons engaged in mining in 1904 was 164,858 (1896, 118,517), of whom 88,330 were engaged in the coal mines (1896, 53,751), 69,133 in metalliferous mines (1896, 59,606), and 7395 in non-metalliferous mines (1896, 5160).

FISHERIES. The Japanese depend on the farmer and the fisherman for their food-supplies. The former provides them with the indispensable rice, and the latter with the fish which invariably goes with it. About 3,000,000 persons are engaged in fishing and the industries allied to it. The waters, both fresh and salt, teem with fish of every kind, from the whitebait to the bonito and the sturgeon. There is probably no country in the world where the markets are supplied with a greater abundance or variety. The mackerel family is perhaps the largest, both in species and catch; the tai, or golden bream, is perhaps the most prized. The salmon abounds, especially in Yezo, where there are many salmon-curing establishments. The flounder, sole, turbot, trout, haddock, perch, pike, shad, and halibut are all plentiful, and the taking of them gives employment to tens of thousands of men. In 1904 the catch of fresh fish was valued at $21,231,000, against $11,816,000 in 1895. There are several establishments in different parts of the country for the hatching and rearing of fish, each with a capacity of 30,000. Various kinds of fish-oil are made. On the coasts of Yezo immense numbers of a kind of herring or sardine are caught, and the residue, after expressing the oil, is packed and shipped south to the other islands as manure. The value of the dried fish and fish-oil, fish-guano, and other manufactured products in 1904 was $10,359,000. The salt used in fish-curing and in Japan generally is made by evaporating seawater and then leaching and boiling. The area of these beds in 1904 was 19,760 acres, and the value of the salt produced was $4,966,000.

AGRICULTURE. In Japan, as in China, the farming class has always held an honorable position in the community, ranking next after the barons and their military retainers, who were the scholars of the country, and taking precedence of the mechanic and the merchant. Nearly half the population is directly engaged in agriculture.

The soil is largely the product of old shales, granite and trachytic eruptions decomposed by the action of the weather, and is not naturally fertile. It is only by the most careful manuring that it can be made productive, a result to which also the warmth and moisture of the climate contribute largely. As already indicated, the greater portion of the country is occupied by mountains, largely covered with forests or tall, rank grass,

leaving only certain narrow river stretches and plateaus, and more or less circumscribed plains for cultivation. It is therefore not surprising that the portion devoted to agriculture is only 15.7 per cent. of the total area. The forests covered 40,225,000 acres in 1904, four-sevenths being owned by the State. Rice (of which there are 217 varieties) is the staple food and the most important crop, and rice or "wet" land is worth about three times as much as other arable land. For its cultivation, irrigation is needed, and even the hillsides and gullies are terraced, the water being ingeniously conducted from one terraced plat to the other. In 1904 7,057,752 acres of rice land were under cultivation, and yielded 255,114,000 bushels. Much of this is consumed in the manufacture of saké, the beverage of the country, the excise duty on which returns a large revenue to the Government. In 1904 over 131,391,000 gallons were produced. The crops next in importance are barley, rye, and wheat, the area and the product of which in 1904 were as follows: barley, 1,596,618 acres, yielding 44,278,000 bushels; rye, 2,890,790 acres, yielding 34,006,000 bushels; and wheat, 1,123,675 acres, yielding 19,141,000 bushels. The other products are pulse, millet, corn, buckwheat, potatoes of various kinds, all sorts of vegetables, and the soy-bean, which is said to approach more nearly in its chemical composition to animal food than any other known vegetable; one-fifth of its weight is fat and nearly two-fifths nitrogenous matter. In 1904, 18,404,000 bushels of this bean were produced. Tobacco (introduced by the Portuguese before 1612, for in that year its production and use were forbidden), cotton (known to the Japanese 150 years before the Chinese), sugar, hemp, and indigo are grown, and great attention is given to silk and tea. In 1903 mulberry trees covered 796,335 acres. The tea plantations in 1904 covered 127,151 acres, and produced 58,382,000 pounds of tea.

Since the abolition of the feudal system, the soil has been mostly held by those who work it, the average holding being about one acre. The land tax was transformed in 1873 from a tax in kind (grain), proportioned to area, into a money tax proportioned to the value of the land. It was 22 per cent. of the assessed value until 1899, varied between 3.3 and 5 per cent.-according to the class of land-during 1899-1903, and was raised to 5.5 per cent. since the war with Russia. In the budget for 1906-7 it was estimated at $42,645,000, or nearly three times the estimate from customs.

Until recent years flocks and herds were not reared, such cattle as were found being used merely as beasts of burden. Milk, butter, and cheese were unknown, and beef was never eaten. This was due partly to the influence of Buddhist teaching, and partly to the fact that the grasses of Japan, except perhaps in Yezo, are not adapted for grazing. Since the Restoration (see paragraph on History) the Government has established numerous experimental farms, under skilled for eign superintendence, including the breeding of horses and cattle and the rearing of sheep. These efforts have been only partially successful. The use of animal food is, however, extending, and dairying has been introduced. In 1904 there were 1,403,000 cattle, 1,390,000 horses, 192,000 hogs, 68,000 goats, and 2769 sheep.

MANUFACTURES. China is the original home of the highly perfected arts of lacquer-work, fine

ceramics, chasing and inlaid work, ivory, bone, stone, and wood carving, in most of which Japan now excels its ancient tutor. The most authoritative writers on the industries of Japan agree that the Japanese have regarded China as their model in all these departments for many centuries. They have developed great aptitude for imitating these art products, and but very little independent creative power. The fact that Japan now far surpasses its old master in the most extended branches of art-handicraft is to be attributed to this very gift of imitation, and most of all to the awakened sense of beauty in nature and art that has been applied to worthy and useful ideas as models which originated on foreign soil.

It

In the latest development of the industries of Japan the same limitations are observed. has been shown thus far that while the Japanese artisan has great manipulative skill and can turn out indifferent sewing-machines, typewriters, and many other foreign mechanisms with an imitative art in superficialities that amounts almost to genius, still for the fundamental elements of his industry he must yet depend on the assistance of foreigners. The national character in its recent approximation to Western civilization is what it always has been, imitative, not originative; and is almost wholly devoid of that rude energy of initiative which constitutes such a marked difference between the inhabitants of the East and the West. This detracts nothing from the merit and value of the industries for which the Japanese are famous. In wood-work their buildings lack much in solidity, adaptation, and elegance. It is not as carpenters and architects that they are distinguished, but as joiners, turners, and wood-carvers. The frames of their window-panes, the wainscoting of the walls of many of their temples, and numerous other works, are samples of fine and careful joinery. They make many small wooden wares, excellent in design and utility. Comb-cutting is a large house industry, small-tooth combs of the thick, heavy wood of several evergreen trees being used in the native toilet.

Lacquer-work takes the first place among the Japanese art industries. In no other branch of art have the Japanese so completely disengaged themselves from their Chinese masters, displayed so much fancy and taste, and won such eminence among all civilized peoples. The lacquer-tree is grown chiefly in Hondo or the main island, between the parallels of latitude 35° and 40° north. Its sap is distinguished from all other varnishes by its greater hardness, its high lustre preserved for centuries, and its resistance to agencies that destroy other resinous varnishes. The lacquer varnish is applied to wooden or metal articles. Every layer must be thoroughly dried and polished before another is placed. A fine piece of work, with twenty to thirty coats of lacquer, may be many months in making. The antiquity of the industry is attested by some lacquer boxes in one of the temples where they have been kept, it is said, in a state of perfect preservation for seventeen centuries. Among the choicest exhibits of the museums in the Occident are Japanese lacquers fixed on copper, or more frequently on the wood of the Pinus retinospora, and ornamented with gold, silver, or mother-of-pearl. The best specimens have a metallic lustre, can scarcely be scratched, and are almost indestructible. In 1903,

16,595 persons in 5260 families were engaged in the lacquer industry, as against 20,379 persons in 4147 families in 1899. The value of their output was $2,675,000 in 1903, and $2,820,000 in 1899. Much broken pottery has been discovered in mounds in Japan dating from prehistoric times, but it was only after contact with China through Korea, and the introduction of Korean potters, that Japan began to progress in an art which has made it renowned. The most famous of the pottery wares are the choice imitation porcelains known as 'Old Satsuma,' which have become extremely rare. All Japanese pottery, however, is traced back to Seto in Owari, and from this circumstance Setomono has become the general name for all Japanese ceramic ware. The number of ceramic works was never greater than at present, the art having spread into many new districts. Wares serving the humblest utilities, or expensive products for the collections of connoisseurs are produced, many of them being remarkable for richness of color and originality of floral and animal designs. Many of the potters' villages are famous, though they do not differ in appearance from ordinary hamlets. Each workshop comprises the members of a single family, every member watching in his turn over the baking of the materials in the public oven of the commune. The chief manufactories for the finest porcelain ware are at Arita in the Province of Hizen, in Kiushiu, where the best clays are found in abundance. It was here that Gorodayu Shonsui set up his first kiln on his return in 1520 from China, where he had learned the art of porcelain-making. In 1899 the number of families engaged in pottery and porcelain making was 4604, the number of persons employed 19,454, and the value of the product $2,934,000; in 1903 the number of families was 4694, of persons 23,599, and the value of the product $3,474,000.

In the making of works of art in bronze, a single artist casts the metal, does the chasing, colors with oxides, encrusts the bronze with precious metals, coral, or pearls, and produces the work from start to finish. The Japanese do not share the predilection of the Indian people for brass utensils, though the few they make are ornamented with great skill and care; but they excel in bronze manufactures. In 1899 the bronze and copper workers in Japan numbered 5395, and the finished product was valued at $691,875; in 1903 their number was 8244 in 1641 families, and the value of the product was $1,428,000.

The Japanese excel in the manufacture of some kinds of paper, of which they use a larger quantity in proportion to population than most other nations. It is made from various species of plants, including the pulp of the paper-mulberry, and is used not only for printing and painting, but for many other purposes. Their handkerchiefs, table napkins, window-panes, the panels forming the movable partitions of their houses, are made of paper. They cover with paper the cushioned stools used as pillows, and paper garments coated with vegetable wax are worn in rainy weather. The papers of Japan always show a yellowish tint when made of the purely native materials, and in the purely native way, and in this respect are inferior to the pure white products of the West; but printing paper as white as any made in the United States or Europe is produced in quantity. All attempts

to imitate some of the Japanese native papers have failed. In 1899 paper was manufactured in 65,514 families, yielding an output valued at $8,272,754; in 1903, in 63,526 families, the value of the product was $6,181,000.

The Japanese also excel in wickerwork, and in a great variety of straw objects, such as straw toys and mosaics. Ivory is fashioned into curious boxes and cabinets, and embellished with carved reliefs involving microscopic work. Ivory carvings, large and small, distinguished for technical skill and inspiration, are sold in all Western countries. The artistic skill of many of the natives, however, has been impaired by the production of great quantities of cheap articles to meet the foreign demand for the artistically worthless articles sold under the name of 'Japanese-china' and other cheap products.

Spinning and weaving have for centuries been the most important native industries. The art of weaving heavy linens and silken fabrics and their brocades, interwoven with gold and silver thread, was long ago developed to a high degree; their products still form admirable hangings and festive robes. But the modern brocades are often colored with imported aniline dyes, and have neither the brilliancy nor the quality of the old fabrics. Spinning and weaving for every-day utility have always employed most of the textile workers. The returns for 1895 showed that there were then over 1,000,000 weavers, and in nearly every house in rural Japan the spinning-wheel and loom were kept going from morning till night. A great revolution, however, was already far advanced. About 1880 an enormous impetus was given to the erection of cotton spinneries, with all modern appliances, and to-day home-spun yarn is almost unknown in the Japanese markets. Osaka is the great centre of manufacture both of yarns and cotton goods. It has been compared to Manchester on account of the many spinningmills and other large textile interests centred there. In 1890 the value of raw cotton imported into Japan was $2,672,000; in 1905 it was $55,090,000. In 1894 the number of cotton spinning mills was 45, representing a capital investment of $6,627,000, with 476,000 spindles, producing 121,054,000 pounds of yarn, and employing 8229 male and 26,923 female workers. in 1904 the number of cotton spinning mills was 74, the invested capital was $17,280,000, the number of spindles was 1,306,000, the yarn produced was 286,235,000 pounds, and the number of employees was 10,967 males and 52,115 females. The following table, giving the value for a series manufactures, shows the rapid progress of these of years of the silk, cotton, and other textile. industries up to 1899, as well as the subsequent depression:

1904

1886 1896 1899 1903 $14,240,000 $55,492,100 $87,031,000 $68,867,000 $64,389,000 Silk is also manufactured to a great extent by modern machinery. About half the raw silk is. retained at home for the manufacture of the characteristic silk fabrics worn in the country. Large quantities of the exported silk fabrics are now dyed in France and the United States before being placed on the market. Reeled silk, however, is the chief silk export. Silkworm-eggs on cards are also exported to Italy.

The policy of Japan has long been to build up a strong navy and a large merchant marine, with

industrial activity during 1904-5 was excessively large, owing to the necessities of war, it should be borne in mind that its taking over of the chief railway lines of the country (see below, NATIONALIZATION OF RAILWAYS) will still further extend the scope of its industrial activities.

COMMERCE. The domestic trade has been greatly stimulated by the rapid growth of railways, which render it easy and cheap to distribute the products of the factories throughout the country and particularly in the main island. This fact is causing some decline in the home industries, which, however, still supply a very large part of the common needs of the people. In the foreign trade the imports have regularly exceeded the exports since 1895, owing to the large railway equipment and other material which Japan has purchased abroad in the development of its many enterprises. About one-third of the imports come from other parts of Asia and twothirds from Occidental lands. Asiatic countries buy from Japan about one-third of the exports, the remainder being sent to Western countries. The following table showing the total foreign trade (excluding the precious metals) for a series of years, will give an idea of the rapid development of foreign commerce:

the value of manufactured exports was about $28,000,000, or over 27 per cent. of the total exports of merchandise; in 1905 it was about $89,000,000, or about 33 per cent. of the merchandise exports.

The principal imports into Japan from the United States are flour and wheat, raw ginned cotton and kerosene oil; also engines, locomotives, electrical apparatus, and other kinds of machinery, and leather goods. Nearly all the kerosene oil and most of the lubricating oil and paraffin wax come from the United States. The larger part of the raw cotton is obtained from British India, the price of whose short staple is usually about 11 per cent. lower than that of American cotton. Raw cotton, however, is largely imported from the United States, and the shipments of 1905 were more than double those of 1899. Imports from the United States of iron and steel manufactures were unusually large during 1904 and 1905 owing to the war. The United States supplies nearly all the flour, but Australia competes in supplying wheat. The United States leads in shipments of alcohol, leather, telephones, lumber, and steel and iron materials for bridges and buildings. Hong Kong and Germany supply nearly half the sugar imported, the remainder

coming chiefly from other Asiatic countries. The United States buys more than three-fourths of the tea exports, and is the heaviest purchaser of raw silk, which constitutes more than one-half of the entire imports from Japan. Japan's cotton yarn and tissues are sold in neighboring countries of Asia. The exports of coal, principally to China and Hong Kong, are important.

COMMUNICATIONS. Japan has been exerting every energy for many years to improve transportation facilities throughout the country and to foreign lands. The Government is not unmindful of the necessity of supplying good harbors. Yokohama, the most northerly port of first-class importance, has a naturally fine harbor that has been greatly improved by dredging. There are large dock facilities and a substantial breakwater. Yokohama transacts a very large part of the foreign business of the country. It is the centre of the silk trade. The second port in importance is Kobe, one of the centres of the tea trade and other commerce of Central Japan. The ports open by treaty to foreign trade are Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki, Hakodate,