Japan and the Japanese

490 JAPAN. A. D. 18171850.
pensive work, called Fauna, Japonica, with colored plates of most
of the animals described, and in the preparation of which the native
works on the subject were largely consulted. This work include- 4
three lizards, two tortoises, six snakes, eleven of the frog family,
three hundred and fifty-nine fishes (Siebold describes the Japanese
as a nation of fish-eaters), besides several whales, and two hundred
and two birds. The principal quadrupeds, natives of Japan, and
described in it, are a small deer, an antelope, in the most southern
parts an ape, a wolf, a bear, and in Jeso another more ferocious
species, like the Rocky Mountain bear, a wild hog, two foxes, and
a number of smaller animals. There is no animal of the cat kind,
except the domestic cat. The dogs used for hunting appear to be
indigenous. There are pet house-dogs, derived from China, and
troops of street-dogs belonging to no individual, but denizens of
particular streets of a mongrel breed between the two.
The Flora Japonica, prepared by Zaccarini, from Siebold's col-
lection, containing descriptions and drawings of one hundred and
twenty-four remarkable plants, was interrupted by the death of that
botanist, as was also another, less
costly, but fuller enumeration of
Japanese plants, arranged iu natural families. The latter work, so
far as completed, contains four hundred and seventy-eight genera,
and eight hundred and forty-seven species. Siebold states, that of
five hundred plants most remarkable for ornament or utility, at
least half are of foreign origin, chiefly from China.
Siebold's observations, during his residence in Japan, upon other
subjects than natural history, have been principally embraced in a
publication in numbers, originally in German, but a French translation
of parts of which has appeared, entitled " Nippon, or Ar-
chives for the Description of Japan." This work, projected like
most of Siebold's publications, on an extensive scale, contains many
translations from Japanese historical works, and exhibits a great
deal of erudition, at the same time it is diffuse, confused, incohe-
rent, introducing a great deal of matter with only a remote bearing
on the subject ; and, whatever light it may throw upon some partic-
ular points, not, on the whole, adding a great deal to the knowledge
we previously had of Japan, so far, at least, as the general reader
would be likely to take an interest in it.*
* A series of numbers, professing to give the substance of the recent work*