Untitled

356
EAST ASIA.
of the Pacific and Russia, the Empire of the "Rising Sun" completes the zone of
lands brought within the sphere of Western ideas in the northern hemisphere. It
enables East and West to join hands, while by sea it commands all the highways
leading towards Malaysia, Australia, Indo-China, and the lands bordering on the
Indian Ocean and Pacific seaboards. Its population is, moreover, sufficiently large
and industrious to enable it rapidly to acquire an important position in the general
movement of commerce and modern history. Nippon is already familiarly spoken
of as the " Great Britain " of the extreme East.
FORM EXTENT NAME.
The Japanese Archipelago forms a perfectly limited geographical whole, at
least if in it be still included the island of Sakhalin, taken by Russia in 1875 in
exchange for the Kurile group ; for Sakhalin obviously constitutes the northern
section of a long chain of elevated lands continued through Yeso and half of Hondo
south-eastwards to the Ogasavara (Bonin) Archipelago. Towards the north-east
this axis, which stretches for about 1,800 miles nearly in a line with the meridian,
throws off the gently curved group of the Kuriles, connecting the volcanic area of
Yeso with that of Kamchatka. But in the extreme East all lands, the continental
coastlines no less than the insular groups, uniformly affect this curvilinear disposi-
tion. Hondo itself, the chief island in Japan, describes a curve whose convex side,
like that of the Kuriles, faces seawards. Further south the Liu-Kiu (Riu-kieu)
Archipelago is traced in the same way between Kiu-siu and Formosa. Japan thus
consists altogether of a longitudinal axis and of three arcs following successively
in the direction from the north-east to the south-west. The south side of Yeso
about Volcano Bay, the Nik-ko highlands in the main island, and the central
uplands in Kiu-siu, form so many 'nuclei at the intersection of these various lines,
and it is
precisely
at these, points of intersection that the most active centres of the
igneous forces are found.
The three curves of the Kuriles, Hondo, and Liu-Kiu rise above the deepest
known oceanic waters. But on their west side thev are separated from the main-
lancl only by superficial cavities. Through Sakhalin, Japan, so to say, touches the
continent ; while through Kiu-siu and the intermediate island of Tsu-sima it
approaches Korea in waters nowhere more than 400 feet deep.
A profound trough
is developed only between the Gulf of Tartary and the two straits of Tsu-sima,
where the sounding line has recorded 1,500 fathoms near Cape Kozakov on the
north-east coast of Korea. Towards the middle of the Sea of Japan still greater
depths probably occur.
Independently of the Kurile and Liu-Kiu groups, Japan proper consists of four
large islands : Yeso or " Land of the Barbarians," Hondo, Sikok or the " Four
Provinces," and Kiu-siu or the " Nine Districts ;
" besides countless islands and
islets, some attached to the adjacent coast by submarine banks, some rising as
volcanoes above deep waters. The native geographers often speak of 3,850 islands,
but even this number does not include all the reefs and rocks fringing the coasts.