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Rh the huts on them are deserted, and the native guides mostly refuse to undertake any ascent.

The foregoing description of the Japanese climate applies to the Pacific seaboard of Central Japan, of which Tōkyō is fairly representative. But need we remind the reader that Japan is a large country? The northernmost Kuriles, now Japanese territory, touch Kamchatka. The most southern of the Luchu Isles is scarcely a degree from the tropic of Cancer, to say nothing of newly acquired Formosa. The climate at the extreme points of the empire, therefore, differs widely from that of temperate Central Japan. Speaking generally, the south-eastern slope of the great central range of the Main Island—the slope facing the Pacific Ocean and washed by the Kuro-shio,—Gulf-Stream of Eastern Asia has a much more moderate climate than the north-western slope, which faces the Sea of Japan, with Siberia beyond. In Tōkyō, on the Pacific side, what little snow falls melts almost immediately. In the towns near the Sea of Japan it lies three or four feet deep for weeks, and drifts to a depth of fifteen to eighteen feet in the valleys. But the summer in these same towns is, like the Tōkyō summer, oppressively hot. That the Tōkyō rainfall more than doubles that of London has already been stated. But Tōkyō is by no means one of the wettest parts of the country; on the contrary, with the exception of the northern shore of the Inland Sea and the plain of Shinshū, it is among the driest. Many districts show double its rainfall, the Hida-Etchū mountains and the south-east coast of Kishū show treble.

Thunder-storms and sudden showers are rare in Japan, excepting in the mountain districts. Fogs, too, are rare south of Kinkwa-zan, about 38° 20' North. From Kinkwa-zan right up the eastern coast of the Main Island, all along Eastern Yezo, the Kuriles, and up as far as Behring's Strait, thick fogs prevail during the calm summer months,—fogs which are relieved only by furious storms in autumn, and a wintry sea packed with ice. The average number of typhoons passing over Japan yearly is from four to five, of which