2 ART. l.-S. YOSHIVVARA: 



groupf (See PL II), on the north-east of which lies the Okinawa 

 group. Immediately on the north of the Okinawa group there 

 is the so-called Öshima group, which, in fact, is merely its northern 

 continuation. A row of very small islands lying to the north-west of 

 the Öshima group is called the Tokara group. Between these island 

 o-roups and Kyüshü, there is the Osumi group consisting of a few 

 scattered islands, the largest of which are Yaku-shima and Tanega- 

 shima. 



Tlie Saki-shiina Group. 



The Saki-shima group is divisible into two subgroups, the 

 Yaeyama and the Miyako. The former has, besides the two large 

 islands of Iriomote and Ishigaki, ten smaller ones, called respectively 

 Yonaguni-jima, Hatoma-jima, Kuro-shima, Aragusuku-jima, Nakano- 

 gan-jima, Hateruma-jima, Taketomi-jima, Kobama-jima, and Kayama- 

 jima. 



Yonaguni-jima is situated in the westernmost part and prior to 

 our acquisition of Formosa was known as the western limit of Japan. 

 This island is divisible into eastern and western sections by two hill 

 ranges called Urabu and Kobura, having a vast plateau between them. 

 Raised reefs were observed over the whole area of this plateau and 

 along the outer margin of the hill ranges. They are also widely 

 distributed in the western and northern parts of the island, while in 

 the other parts they are now found only in detached areas on the 

 table-land of Tertiary sandstone. Although the culminating point of 

 the hill ranges attains an elevation of 700 ft. and although the found- 

 ation covered by reefs is composed of the sediments of the Miocene 

 epoch with a dip generally to the east and the strike running either 



t Sliima (pronounced Jima in combination) means island or islands. 



