In conclusion, attention should be called once more to the physiographical advantages of Japan, and it may be of interest to set them forth from the point of view of a Japanese who has indulged in some prognostications of the future of his nation. From the insular position of Japan, he assumes an adaptability to commerce and navigation; from the situation of Japan, “on the periphery of the land hemisphere,” and thus at a safe distance from “the centre of national animosities,” he deems her comparatively secure from “the depredations of the world’s most conquering nations”; from the direction of her chief mountain system (her backbone), and “the variegated configurations of her surface,” he thinks that “national unity with local independence” may easily be developed. Likewise, because more indentations are found on the eastern than on the western sides of the Japanese islands, except in the southwestern island of Kyushiu, where the opposite is true; because the ports of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia are open _toward_ Japan; because the Hoang-Ho, the Yangtze Kiang, and the Canton rivers all flow and empty toward Japan; because the latter thus “turns her back on Siberia, but extends one arm toward America and the other toward China and India”; because “winds and currents seem to imply the same thing [by] making a call at Yokohama almost a necessity to a vessel that plies between the two continents,”—he conceives of his native country as a _nakōdo_ (middleman, or arbiter) “between the democratic West and the Imperial East, between the Christian America and the Buddhist Asia.” But since these comparisons were made, the geography of Eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean has been altered. Japan has acquired Formosa and Korea; the United States has assumed the responsibility of the Philippines; and China is threatened with partition through “spheres of influence.” Japan, therefore, seems now to be lying off the eastern coast of Asia, with her back turned on Russia with Siberian breezes and Arctic currents, her face turned toward America, with one hand stretched out toward the Aleutian Islands and Alaska and the other toward the Philippines, for the hearty grasp of friendship. BIBLIOGRAPHY. For more detailed information concerning the topics treated in this chapter, the reader is referred to “The Story of Japan” (Murray), in the “Story of the Nations” series; “The Gist of Japan” (Peery); and “Advance Japan” (Morris). For pleasant descriptions of various portions of Japan, “Jinrikisha Days in Japan” (Miss Scidmore); “Lotos-Time in Japan” (Finck); “Japan and her People” (Miss Hartshorne); “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” (Miss Bird, now Mrs. Bishop); “Every Day Japan” (Lloyd); and “Japan To-Day” (Scherer) are recommended. The most complete popular work on the country is the “Hand-Book for Japan” (Chamberlain and Mason), 8th edition; and the most thorough scientific treatment is to be found in Rein’s “Japan.”