Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/601

impression that the supply was far more abundant than was actually the fact. The quantity of bullion exported by the Portuguese during their stay in Japan (1550–1639) may be estimated at the least at fifty-nine and a half millions sterling, or an average of £660,000 yearly. Dr Kaempfer even speaks of some years with an export of two and a half millions of gold. From 1649 to 1671 the Dutch also exported large quantities, together with silver and copper, and the total value of gold and silver alone sent out of Japan during the 16th and 17th centuries may be estimated at nearly one hundred and three millions sterling. At an exhibition held in Kiôto in 1875 were shown about twenty samples of gold ore found in different provinces. The ore is generally poor, and many gold-yielding places are now lying unworked, because the increased cost of labour renders it very difficult to work them with profit. Pure auriferous quartz has been found in the provinces of Satsuma and Kai, gravel in Ôsumi, and quartz in Rikuchiu and at the mine of Aikawa in the island of Sado. The mode in which the Japanese work the gold ores nearly resembles Western methods. They understand perfectly the separation of even the smallest quantities of gold dust from stones and gravel by means of a system of washing and levigation. They do not, however, possess any good process for the separation of gold from silver, and hence all Japanese gold contains a greater or less proportion of the latter metal. Silver ore was discovered accidentally in the year 667 A.D., in the island of Tsushima; this ore produced the first Japanese silver metal, in the year 674. From 1400 to 1600 it was obtained and melted in Japan in far larger quantities than at the present time. It generally occurs in comparatively small quantities as an admixture in several copper and lead ores. The principal mines are in the provinces of Jôshiu, Iwami, and Setsu; but it is also found mixed with lead in Hida, Iwashiro, Echizen, Echigo, Rikuchiu, Suwô, Hiuga, and Higo. Of the numerous iron ores to be found, the principal is magnetic iron ore, which forms the main basis of the Japanese iron industry. Loadstone was discovered in the year 713 in the province of Ômi. The exact date of the first manufacture of iron is unknown; it is certain only that the Japanese have worked their iron ores from the 10th century onward. The principal seats of the industry are in the provinces of Idzumo, Bingo, Ôshiu, Hiuga, Tajima, Wakasa, Bizen, Bitchiu, Shinano, Tôtômi, Kai, Suruga, and Satsuma. The best steel is manufactured in Harima, Hôki, Idzumo, and Iwami. The excellent temper of the Japanese sword-blades is well known. The most noted smiths formerly resided in the provinces of Sagami, Bizen, and Kishiu, and in the neighbourhood of Kiôto. Japanese legends assert that the first sword was forged in the reign of the emperor Sūjin (97–30 B.C.), but this statement is of course open to considerable doubt. Copper was, it is said, smelted in Japan for the first time in the year 698 at Inaba in the province of Suwô; and in the year 708 the first Japanese copper coin was cast, in the province of Musashi. Since the 10th century enormous quantities of ore have been smelted, and this metal formed the chief trade of the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki from 1609 to 1858,—the amount exported by the former being more than four millions of piculs and by the latter undoubtedly still more.^[1] It is perhaps the metal most commonly found in Japan, and is used for all kinds of household goods, doors to storehouses, ornaments, temple-furniture, mirrors, bronzes, smoking utensils, and current coinage. It is found and smelted in all parts of the country, particularly in the northern and western provinces, and its export figures considerably in the trade returns of the treaty ports during the past few years. As a rule Japanese copper is exceedingly free from the presence of injurious metals. After the year 1600 many bronze guns were cast in Japan, the workmanship being exceedingly good; these old guns are often to be seen even now, though by far the larger number, together with the temple bells, &c., made from the same material, have been broken up and exported as old bronze by European merchants. Of other metals Japan also produces lead, quicksilver, and tin. Coal is found in large quantities, particularly in Kiushiu, where the province of Hizen contains the well-known mines of Karatsu, and in the island of Takashima, near the treaty port of Nagasaki. Coal-fields also exist in the large northern island of Yezo. Nearly all the steamers plying between Japan and China coal at Nagasaki, where this trade attracts a good deal of enterprise. The numerous quarries throughout the empire afford large quantities of stone. Marble and granite are found principally in the provinces of Shinano, Mino, and Kôdzuké; freestone is also procured from Setsu and Idzu. The huge blocks of which the ramparts of the castle at the capital are built were originally brought from the latter province. In the old castle of Ôzaka, in Setsu, there is an enormous piece of granite measuring thirteen paces in length and about 9 feet in height. The foundations of all the more ancient temples throughout the country are formed of large blocks, and these, together with the long flights of steps, still remain to prove the durability of the old style of architecture. It is strange, however, that at the present moment stone is but sparingly used for building purposes; even in the great cities the dwelling-houses are almost entirely constructed of timber, stone being used only for bridges and for edifices on a larger scale than ordinary.^[2]

Climate.Climate.—The climate of Japan, as might naturally be expected in view of the great length of the chain of islands, varies to a considerable extent in different localities.^[3] Thus we find that while the Riukiu and Bonin groups, lying close to the tropics, enjoy perpetual summer, the Kurile Islands in the far north of the empire share the arctic temperature of Kamtchatka. The climate is, on the whole, favourable for Europeans, although its frequent changes often prove trying to foreign residents. All the mountain ranges are wrapped deep in snow throughout the winter months; indeed, from many peaks snow never entirely disappears. In the northern provinces it has been known to fall to a depth of no less than 8 feet, and the province of Echigo is specially noted in this respect. At the treaty port of Niigata, in that province, small bamboo sheds are built out from the fronts of the dwelling-houses so as to form a covered way along which pedestrians can pass when the rest of the town is snowed up. At Tôkiô snow falls some three or four times during the winter; it covers the ground to a depth of from 3 to 5 inches on an average, but does not lie long. In January 1876, however, a remarkably severe snowstorm occurred, when the whole city was covered to a depth of 2 feet or more; so unusual was this phenomenon deemed that a large number of photographs of the landscape were taken to perpetuate the memory of the event. Farther to the south and west the