ch in Japan has been
sufficiently extensive or systematic to ascertain whether, and if so
what, any species of animals have ever existed there other than those
at present found in the country. It certainly is in some respects
extraordinary that a country so close to the Asiatic Continent and
possessing such a variety of climates should, as regards the animal
kingdom from the standpoint of the zoologist, be put down as
distinctly poor. The fact, or supposed fact, to which I have
previously referred, that the Japanese islands are the summits of
mountain ranges which many thousand years ago had their bases
submerged by the rising of the sea or had gradually settled down
beneath the surface of the ocean, may, of course, account for the
poverty of Japan in regard to the animals therein. I must leave other
pens than mine to descant on that interesting if highly speculative
matter. Be that as it may, if the fauna of Japan is poor, the country
certainly makes up for it by the variety and magnificence of its
flora--a flora which deserves to be studied, and which has done so
much to brighten not only the appearance of the country but the lives
of its inhabitants.

CHAPTER III

THE JAPANESE RACE AND ITS LANGUAGE

There are, I have always thought, two ways in which any race should be
considered if it is desired to form a correct idea in regard to it,
viz., from an ethnological and philological standpoint. No race
deserves to be closer studied in these matters than the Japanese.
Indeed, I am of opinion that it is impossible to arrive at any clear
or correct opinion concerning it without having, however slightly,
investigated its racial descent and the language which, among Eastern
dialects, has so long been as great a puzzle to the philologist as has
Basque among the European languages. Respecting the origin of the
Japanese we know practically nothing--at any rate nothing authentic.
The native legends and histories afford us neither guide nor clue in
the matter. These legends and histories tell us that the Japanese are
descended from the gods, but I am quite certain that the modern
Japanese receives that fact (?) with something more than the
proverbial grain of salt. According to the old legend Ninigi-no-Nikoto
was a god despatched by his grandmother the Sun-goddess to take
possession of Japan, and the land was peopled by him and his
entourage. This god-man, it is stated, lived over 300,000 years; his
son, Hohoderni, at