me assuredly
very much greater. The coal is not of such a good quality as either
Welsh or North Country, but there is a large and growing demand for it
in the East, and coal is undoubtedly a highly important part of
Japan's latent wealth. Copper, a metal which is in increasing demand,
exists in Japan in enormous quantities, and she promises at no very
far-distant date to be the chief copper-producing country of the
world. Iron and sulphur are also found, and there are many other
minerals, some of which are more or less worked. The Japanese Mining
Law, it may be interesting to relate, recognises the following
minerals and mineral ores, which may accordingly be taken as existing
in the country: Gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, hematite, antimony,
quicksilver, zinc, iron, manganese and arsenic, plumbago, coal,
kerosene, sulphur, bismuth, phosphorus, peat.

Whatever the mineral wealth of Japan--and the extent and variety
thereof are probably yet not fully realised--there can be no question
as to the value of its arboreal products. The lacquer-tree (_rhus
vernicifera_), which furnishes the well-known Japanese lacquer, the
paper mulberry, the elm, oak, maple, bamboo, camphor, and many other
descriptions of trees, grow in abundance. The forests of Japan cover
nearly 60 per cent. of the land. For some years after the Revolution
there was a reduction in the wooded area, nearly four million acres
having been cleared for occupation. Of late years, however, forestry
has been scientifically taken in hand, and about one and a half
million acres have been replanted in districts which have not been
found suitable for farming. The climate of Japan varies so greatly
that there is a corresponding variety in its trees. About eight
hundred kinds of forest trees are suitable for cultivation in Japan,
varying from the palm and the bamboo to the fir and many other trees
with which we are familiar in this country.

The Japanese are above all things an agricultural people. The tobacco
plant, the tea shrub, potatoes, rice, wheat, barley, millet, cotton,
rape, and many cereals other than those I have mentioned are
extensively cultivated. The great mass of the people of Japan live on
the land, and though I think the tendency, as in Great Britain, is for
the large towns to magnetically draw the dwellers in the country,
nevertheless agriculture is still held in high esteem, and the peasant
is content to dwell on the land and live by it. Rice is the