comes denser, and the pressure increases until strong winds from the south-southwest prevail. On the other hand, when the air of the continent becomes heated by the suns of spring and summer, it becomes rarer and lighter, with southeast currents. So that with southeast winds in summer, and northwest winds in winter, the mountain systems meanwhile running southwest and northeast and dividing the islands into two sides, front and back, the amount of precipitation differs on the two sides, as well as during the two sea

sons.

Japan has some four or five hundred temperature and raingauge stations, all provided with mercurial barometer, wet and dry bulb thermometers, maximum thermometer, minimum thermometer, windvane, anemometer, rain-gauge, and atometer. At some of the stations observations are taken hourly. The islands are so mountainous, the one level tract being the plain of Kwanto, that temperature varies with the altitude, from far below freezing to over 120°. Autumn is warmer than spring. There is less variation in the velocity of the wind at night than by day, when it begins to increase at sunrise, and reaches the maximum at four o'clock. The strongest winds come in December and January; the least wind is from August to October. Some of the most violent gales of the year are in summer, when the mean velocity is at the minimum.

The humidity of the atmosphere is governed by temperature, being relatively great in summer and small in winter, with the maximum in August and the minimum in December. And as the variations of temperature are influenced by locality, it is so with regard to humidity. On the back Nippon, for instance, the minimum humidity is between April and May, and the maximum in July; on the front Nippon the maximum is in July and the minimum in February. As the country sits in the sea, the relative humidity is high everywhere, though highest at Hokkaido, the mean of the year being 85, and not lower than 79 in the driest month. In July it reaches 91, owing to the cold current from Kamchatka, which strikes the warm air of the islands and produces dense fogs. As to the sky, during the day the clouds hang heaviest over the land, and at night over the sea. On the back Nippon the amount of cloud is great in winter and small in summer;

on the front Nippon it is the reverse. The mean annual sunshine is in duration about two-fifths of the day, but the variations are different on the two sides of the islands. So with precipitation; the rainfall is greater on the back Nippon, which drains into the Japan sea, in autumn and winter than in spring and summer, while on the front Nippon, which faces the Pacific, the reverse is the case.

CHAPTER XIX

MINES AND MANUFACTURES

It is worthy of remark that all the countries round the Pacific are essentially metalliferous, abounding in silver and gold, while, however much of iron and coal the Atlantic seaboards may contain, there were never present, with some few exceptions like the isthmuses which connect the two Americas, and which belong to the Pacific as much as to the Atlantic, any large deposits of the precious metals. On the shores of the Mediterranean, and in India and China gold was found sufficient for the requirements of the ancients, but the vast deposits of Australia and America were held secret until the world broadened, and commerce required more currency.

Great as was the effect upon the mind of man, in the work of illumination and enlightenment, of the discovery and exploration of the Pacific ocean, the effect of the precious metals found at various times and in various ways along its shores on the world's finance, commerce, and manufactures was none the less marked. The early gold-gatherings which were sent to Spain were felt in the factories of England and Flanders; the gold of California vitalized the industries of the United States and saved the credit of the nation during the civil war; the gold of Australia gave the impetus to England's colonization and spread of empire that make her now the mistress of the world.

The gold of the Pacific; how tell the story! Marco Polo and Mandeville went to China many centuries ago, and when they returned hiding in ragged raiment stores of precious stones, they told of the great khan and far Cathay, how there were cities whose temples were roofed with gold, so resplendent that when the sun shone the eyes could not rest on them. And the streets were paved with silver, and the very portals of the palaces studded with gems. Toward the north was opulent Zipangu, whose wealth no man could tell.

Cross now to the other side and see where Columbus came in search of these great riches, telling Christ if he would give them him, they should rescue his holy sepulchre from the infidel Turks. The Genoese would find a short way to this Far East, to this Cathay and Zipangu on the other side of India; but the long drawn continent of the Americas obstructed him, and though he sought diligently for a passage through or round this land, he found it not; so he picked up a little gold and went home and died.

A rollicking adventurer from Spain, Balboa by name, finding himself one day bankrupt on the streets of Santo Domingo, to escape his angry creditors and get to sea, had himself headed up in an empty cask and rolled on board a vessel bound for Darien. Assuming in due time the leadership of a colony established there, and hearing of a sea toward the south, where were gold and pearls, with a small party he adventured thither, found the great South sea, found the gold and pearls, and finally found death, the death of a traitor, but falsely accused by a jealous governor, whose deeds were sanctioned by a sovereign all too ready to cancel the services of his discoverers by killing them.

It was in the bay of Panamá, in the year 1513, when the valiant Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, helmeted and cased in steel, with drawn sword waded far out into the water and took possession of that great sea for the king of Spain. He called upon the waves to hear him, and upon the winds to witness the solemn act, that he then and there took possession of all those waters, of the shores they washed and the islands they encompassed, of the treasures they contained, gold and gems and pearls, fishes and birds, and the people that inhabited their lands, all this for his sovereign lord the king, whose right he would maintain against all comers. Far to the south that voice was heard, and to the north, and across to Asia; the porpoises and sea-gulls heard it, and the cormorants of the cavalier's own country; for soon came Spain demanding from the nations allegiance and service, acknowledgment of ownership by reason of the pope's promise and the antics of the adventurer whom his king had so quickly beheaded out of the way. And in the train of this Spanish claim to domination came ravening wolves, one wolf going hence to the north and one wolf to the south. The wolf who went to the north was called Cortés, and he to the south Pizarro.

From Cuba Hernan Cortés set out with men and ships, some half dozen years after Vasco Nuñez had discovered the South sea, to find wealth and adventure in Mexico, his first chivalrous act being to cheat his patron, Velazquez the governor, out of the entire outfit, all in the line of loyalty, religion, and Spanish honor. Coasting northward the wolves. heard of the mighty Montezuma, how he ruled as God and man all that region from sea to sea, and had stores of gold so great that houses could not contain them. Whereat the wolves smiled, and burning their ships for fear of repentance, trotted off to the capital, to catch this great king, who granted them admittance, mistaking the chief wolf for an expected ambassador from heaven. Traitorously these Spanish wolves robbed the great king, and then traitorously slew him, all in the line of loyalty, religion, and Spanish honor.

The wolf who went south, another six years later, with a small band of adventurers, also found a great and opulent nation, but just then weakened by war, so that a handful of mailed cavaliers might turn the scale either way. The king of this country saw the strangers, and listened to their tale in wonder. As easily as Montezuma had been done to death by Cortés, Atahualpa was entrapped, robbed, and treacherously slain, all again in the line of loyalty, religion, and Spanish honor.

In neither Mexico nor Peru was the use of iron known in those days, but gold and silver were abundant, and among both Aztecs and Peruvians were many skilled artisans, workers in gold and feathers. After Cortés had made Montezuma prisoner, he promised his release on payment of ransom, which freely came forward in form of gold in dust, quoits, leaves, and trinkets constituting to some extent media of trade. All the while the Spaniards demanded more, increasing the ransom under some trivial plea from time to time, until the spoils amounted to $6,000,000. In like manner in Peru collectors were sent to distant parts, tributes were imposed, and tombs and temples profaned to gather in the required ransom. For Atahualpa had said, "I will fill this room as high as you can reach with gold, if you will let me go; and I will fill that room twice full with silver." And the plunder here was twice as much as that in Mexico.

How the world advances! How different these times from