standard; for this reason Japanese silks are hardly as good as those of France or Italy. The annual export of silk is worth to Japan about $30,000,000.

Second only to silk in importance among exports is tea. Most of it is shipped by foreign merchants to America, Chinese and Indian teas being more popular in Europe. About 40,000,000 pounds are annually exported. The quantity consumed at home must be very great, at least equal to that sent abroad.

The foreign trade in rice is large, and is increasing continually. Japanese rice is far better than that grown in India or Burmah, and is esteemed highly in European markets. Formerly the government exported the rice, as it levied taxes in rice and hence had great stores of it; but this practice has been discontinued. Native merchants are now taking up this branch of the export trade and are pushing it with vigor. The value of the export varies very much each year, in accordance with the crop produced.

Japan is not only rich and fertile, yielding the greatest variety of products, but she is also endowed with great mineral wealth. Kaempfer, in the first history of Japan given to the West, enumerates the minerals thus: sulphur, gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, coal, salt, agates, jasper, pearls, naphtha, ambergris, etc. Coal of fairly good quality is present in great quantities in many parts of the empire. Much of it is sold to the foreign steamers that call here on their way to China. The export of copper amounts to more than $5,000,000 per year. Iron, chiefly in the form of magnetic oxide, is present along the sea-coast and in the diluvium of rivers. As yet the iron resources have not been developed. Gold and silver are present in many places, but the mines have never been worked to very great advantage. Large quantities of salt are made from sea-water. Traces of petroleum are found in several localities, but not much has yet been made of it. The great mineral wealth of Japan as yet is developed only partially.

Animals

The fauna is represented generally as very meager, but this is an injustice. A large portion of the animals now found here may have been imported, but, taking Japan as we find her to-day, animals are abundant.

Horses and oxen are the beasts of burden, and are found everywhere. The horses are smaller than those of the West, and are not so gentle, though very sure-footed and hardy. An effort is now being made to improve the breed by importing American and Australian horses. Native oxen do most of the carrying and plowing. Strange to say, the oxen are gentler and more manageable than the horses. There are very few sheep, and it seems that the country is not adapted to them. Almost the only sheep I have seen here were in menageries, caged, along with lions, bears, etc. Pigs are found, but the people are not fond of their flesh, and consequently not many are raised.

Domestic animals are plentiful, such as cats, dogs, ducks, geese, chickens, etc. Many of the cats have no tails, and the people are prejudiced against cats that have tails. If one happens to be born with a tail they will probably cut it off. Turkeys are scarce.

There are many wild animals, such as bears, wild boars, deer, monkeys, tanuki, wild dogs, foxes, and hares. The people are fond of the chase, but, as large game is rare, the opportunity to indulge this taste is very limited.

Among the wild birds are found herons, cranes, ducks, geese, pheasants, pigeons, storks, falcons, hawks, ravens, woodcocks, crows, and a small bird, called uquisu, resembling the nightingale. The stork and the heron are perhaps most popular, and have been pictured in all kinds of native art. Wild geese and ducks spend the summer in Yezo and the winter in Hondo. Singing birds are rare, but not, as some have affirmed, unknown.

The seas surrounding Japan, and her numerous bays and rivers, are teeming with animal life, and for multitude and variety of edible fish are perhaps unsurpassed by any in the world. Salmon, cod, mackerel, herring, bait, tai, and other small fish are very abundant, so much so that in many places they are used as a fertilizer. From time immemorial fish have formed a prominent part of the daily diet of the people. Whales are numerous on the shores of Kyushu and the southern shores of Hondo, where they are taken by means of harping-irons or darts. Quantities of oil are extracted from them, and their flesh is much relished for food.

The foregoing account will perhaps give the reader some idea of the nature, extent, climate, and products of the land of Japan. With a fertile soil, rich deposits of minerals, a genial climate, and a landscape unsurpassed, surely this is a country highly favored by Heaven. How sad to think that those to whom God has given so much know so little of Him! How one's heart bleeds to see God's beautiful handiwork all marred and stained by images and idols, and that praise which the people so justly owe Him given to gods of wood and stone! But such is the case in Japan to-day. The people know that they are indebted to some higher power for innumerable blessings, but they do not know that this power is the God whom we preach to them.

II

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE

Nothing definite is known concerning the origin of the Japanese people. Some authorities think that the southern portion of Japan was first peopled by sailors and fishermen from Malay, who were drifted thither by the strong current of the Black Stream. That this has happened to shipwrecked sailors in the present time is cited in confirmation of this view.

Some of the northern islands are within sight of the mainland, and it is possible that tribes from northern Asia made their way across the narrow seas and settled there. Ethnological and philological evidence indicates that some immigrants came over from Korea, which they could easily have done, as the southern part of Korea is very near.

If these suppositions are true, two races mingled in Japan—the Malay from the south and the Mongol from the west—and the Japanese people are the joint product of the two. But there is no certain information regarding these immigrations, and we cannot affirm them as historic facts.

Two of the greatest authorities on this subject, Baelz and Rein, affirm that the Japanese are of Mongol origin. Dr. Baelz supposes that there were two chief streams of immigration from northern and central Asia by way of Korea. The immigrants gradually spread eastward and northward and settled in the land, becoming the progenitors of the present inhabitants.

It is historically certain that some Chinamen and Koreans have settled in Japan and contributed toward the production of the Japanese race; both Chinese and Japanese histories contain accounts of such immigration; but it is likely that settlers were already here long before these, of whom we have historic accounts, arrived.

This problem is made more difficult by the fact that there are two separate and distinct races here—the Japanese and the Ainu. The latter do not appear to be Mongols. The Japanese call them the aborigines. When they entered Japan, and where they came from, is not known. There is very little intermixing of these two races. The Japanese have gradually forced the Ainu back to the northern island, just as the settlers in the United States have driven back the Indians. Efforts are being made lately to better the condition of this race, but they do not meet with much success. The Ainu appear to have little capacity for civilization, and the race