. Island life; or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. tinent to that of theBritish Islands on the western, except that they are aboutsixteen degrees further south, and having a greater extensionin latitude, enjoy a more varied as well as a more temperateclimate. Their outline is also much more irregular and theirmountains loftier, the volcanic peak of Fusiyama being 14,177feet high ; while their geological structure is very complex, theirsoil extremely fertile, and their vegetation in the hig
. Island life; or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. tinent to that of theBritish Islands on the western, except that they are aboutsixteen degrees further south, and having a greater extensionin latitude, enjoy a more varied as well as a more temperateclimate. Their outline is also much more irregular and theirmountains loftier, the volcanic peak of Fusiyama being 14,177feet high ; while their geological structure is very complex, theirsoil extremely fertile, and their vegetation in the highest degreevaried and beautiful. Like our own islands, too, they are con-nected with the continent by a marine bank less than a hundredfathoms below the surface—at all events towards the north andsouth; but in the intervening space the Sea of Japan opens outto a width of six hundred miles, and in its central portion isvery deep, and this may be an indication that the connectionbetween the islands and the continent is of rather ancientdate. At the Straits of Corea the distance from the mainland is about 120 miles, while at the nortliern extremity of. MAP OK JAPAN AND FORMOSA (with depths in fathoms) tint, sea ^^S^JJ^f-th-s Medium tint, under fathoms. Dark tint, o^?er i,ouu lathoms. The /i^nres show the depth in fathoms. iiA[. xviii.] JAPAN AND FORMOSA. 365 Yesso it is about 200. The island of Saghalien, however,separated from Yesso by a strait only twenty-five miles wide,forms a connection with Amoorland in about 52° N. Lat. Asouthern warm current flowing a little to the eastward of theislands, ameliorates their climate much in the same way as tlieGulf Stream does ours, and added to their insular position enablesthem to support a more tropical vegetation and more variedforms of life than are found at corresponding latitudes in China. Zoological feahircs of Japan.—As we might expect from theconditions here sketched out, Japan exhibits in all its forms ofanimal li
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