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hot springs, rich soil of disintegrated igneous rocks, and many volcanoes, of which far the largest and most celebrated is Fusiyama, a cone 14,177 feet high. The rivers, from the shape of the islands, are all small.

451. COMMUNICATIONS. The roads of Japan are excellent, and within the last few years the Japanese have themselves commenced railroads, and opened a line of seventeen miles from the capital Yedo to its port Yokohama.

452. RACES OF MEN. The Japanese are a Mongolian race, distinct from, but closely allied to, the Chinese. In the interior of Jesso are the Ainos, who are supposed to be the remains of a race that inhabited the island before the Japanese came.

The Japanese language is entirely distinct from the Chinese; it is said, indeed, to have more real affinity with the Finnish and Magyar languages than with the Chinese.

453. RELIGION. The oldest form of religion is Sintuism, or faith in gods, and particularly faith in the Emperor (called Mikado), as lineally descended from the gods, and entitled to worship. The educated classes are often followers of Confucius. Christianity was spreading two centuries ago, when it was extirpated by a persecution in which all who would not abandon it were put to death, and foreigners thenceforth rigorously excluded from the country. Buddhism largely prevails, and the Japanese are almost entirely vegetarians (rice-feeders), proving that even in a cold climate animal food is not requisite for human vigour. As a consequence, the wild birds are perfectly tame, and the wild deer walk about the streets of Osaka. The prejudices of the Japanese will not allow the English sportsman to slaughter these animals; not a trigger may be pulled for sport under the barbarous laws of Japan.

454. HISTORIC SKETCH. Japan has been governed for at least six centuries by the Emperor, the Mikado but for two centuries previous to A.D. 1868 he had been only a puppet in the hands of a feudal body of nobles possessed of vast estates, or rather provinces. In A.D. 1859 the ports

were opened to foreigners; in A.D. 1868 the nobles were put down; in A.D. 1874 the Mikado called a Parliament. The progress of the Japanese (according to the European standard of progress) since A.D. 1859 has been extraordinarily rapid they now send their most promising youths to England, the United States, &c., to learn engineering and other sciences; they have zealously commenced railwaymaking and modelling their army in the European manner; they have established a police in their cities. They have been lately denominated "the Anglo-Saxons of the East."

455. ANIMALS. The wild animals of Japan are very few, the country being insular and populous. Wolves and bears remain in the woods of northern Niphon and Jesso; deer are plentiful.

456. PLANTS. Japan is celebrated for the variety and peculiarity of its vegetation. The camellia and hydrangea are well known in cultivation in England: also several of its remarkable pines and yews are known in English gardens. In the south tree-ferns are common, connecting the vegetation of Japan closely with that of the Malay archipelago. Nearly all kinds of vegetables and fruits are cultivated and found productive as to quantity, but are very generally deficient in flavour. No country in the world, taken as a whole, can be said to be superior to England, though many possess particular advantages that England does not.

457. MINERALS. Japan is rich in mines of coal and copper, and also produces iron, lead, gold, silver, and sulphur.

458. TOWNS. (1) Yedo, the capital, contains 800,000 inhabitants.

(2) Kioto, the ancient capital of Japan, contains 300,000 inhabitants.

(3) Nagasaki, the port of Kiusiu, contains 80,000 inhabitants.

(4) Yokohama, the port of Yedo, contains 100,000 inhabitants.

(5) Osaka, a port in South Niphon, contains 400,000 inhabitants.

(6) Hakodate, the port of Jesso, contains 50,000 inhabitants.

Sect. XXVI. MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

459. EXTENT. Three groups of islands are included here in insular Malaya, viz.:—

(1) The Philippines, of which Luzon and Mindano are the chief.

(2) The Papuan islands, of which New Guinea (or Papua), Ceram, and Timor, are the chief.

(3) The Malay Islands proper, i.e. those inhabited mainly by the Malay race, among which are Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes.

The area of the lands thus included is about that of all Europe leaving out Russia and Scandinavia. The population is guessed to be about that of Germany, but it is probably very much larger; the Archipelago is capable of supporting a much larger population than Europe.

460. CLIMATE. This splendid region, called the "Gardens of the Sun," lies under the equator, while the heat is tempered by the vast area of ocean around and between. The islands are thus never scorched like the interior of Africa, Australia, or even of India; and though they have their year divided into wet and dry seasons, the rain is more evenly distributed than in Australia or India, which are countries of the tropic as compared with Malaya, an equatorial region. Their climate is thus defined as Oceanic Equatorial.

461. MOUNTAINS. High ranges of mountains exist in several of the islands; the Sumatra mountains are known to reach 12,000 feet altitude, and the range in North Borneo 14,000 feet altitude (these islands being each larger than Britain). But the most marked feature of the Archipelago is the great line of volcanoes which runs through the whole

group, from Sumatra through Java, Sumbawa and Timor to New Guinea. There are forty-five volcanoes in Java alone, and several of them reach 10,000 feet in height. Many of the Malay islands have experienced most violent eruptions; the explosions which accompanied the eruption of Sumbawa in 1815 were heard a thousand miles off; the ashes and dense smoke in the air rendered midday as dark as night in Java hundreds of miles off; the floating cinders in the sea were two feet thick, so that ships forced their way through with difficulty. In Sumbawa itself large areas were overwhelmed by streams of molten lava, or showers of white-hot cinders; terrific whirlwinds accompanied the explosions; the sea rolled in as an earthquake wave twelve feet high over the shore; 40,000 souls perished. The earthquakes that accompanied these eruptions were felt a thousand miles around.

462. RACES OF MEN. The Malay Islands are inhabited mainly by Malays, the Papuan Islands by Papuans. The greater part of the inhabitants of the Philippines are reckoned Malay by race. But there are numerous local races in the Archipelago which appear neither Malayan nor Papuan; among these the best known are the Negritos of the Philippines; these have woolly hair, and have been supposed Papuans, but their diminutive stature negatives this hypothesis. There are scattered through the Archipelago many Chinese, some Europeans and Arabs.

463. RELIGION. The Malays are largely Mahometans; in some islands there are Buddhists; in Bali and Lumbok the religion is Brahminical. The Papuans are in general altogether Pagans.

464. PRESent goverNMENT. The Dutch hold the chief empire in Malaya; Java and Sumatra belong wholly to them; Timor and Celebes partly; they also are supreme in the south of Borneo, in the Moluccas, and have settlements in Celebes, New Guinea, and many other islands.

The Portuguese rule (very badly) half Timor.

The English own the island of Labuan, close to Borneo, and possess influence in North Borneo itself.

The Spaniards possess the Philippines.

465. ANIMALS. This vast tropical region is one of the richest parts of the globe in animals. The Malayan, or western portion, is Indo-Malayan, and contains twenty-four kinds of monkeys including the ouran-outang, two rhinoceros, a tiger and a score of other cats, the elephant, sunbears, tapirs, and a number of other Mammalia. The central Malay islands are also renowned for the Birds of Paradise, which are found nowhere else in the world.

The Papuan islands, New Guinea and Timor, contain a strictly Australian set of Mammals; all that are known are Marsupials (i.e. belong to the kangaroo order), except two bats and a wild pig.

The plants follow in some degree the same law; that is to say, the flora of Java and Borneo is Indian in character; that of Timor, Australian. But the plants of New Guinea (little known) seem largely Indian.

466. DIVISIONS. We here enumerate the principal islands :

(1) Luzon, the chief of the Philippines, as large as England celebrated for its produce of tobacco. Belongs to the Spaniards. Capital, Manilla: population, 150,000.

(2) New Guinea, or Papua, the largest island of the whole group, as large as England and France together; the coast is little known, the interior not at all. The Dutch have small settlements at its western end. The Australian colonies meditate annexing it.

(3) The Moluccas, consisting of Borneo, Ceram, and smaller islands, also called the Spice Islands, whence cloves and nutmeg are principally obtained. These belong entirely to the Dutch; the chief town, Amboyna, is the second largest Dutch town in the Archipelago, the whole of which formerly was denominated the Moluccas.

(4) Celebes, as large as Ireland. The Dutch have settlements at several points of this island, the principal being Macassar, in the south.

(5) Borneo, very nearly as large as Papua. The chief Dutch settlement is Banjarmassing, in the south, whence

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