40 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



any attempt upon it was made by European Powers, 

 the Spanish-speaking republic would soon set up 

 a Monroe doctrine of their own. Of course these 

 lands are healthy, they could not be otherwise, 

 situated as they are in the midst of the vast Southern 

 Ocean, and freely exposed to all its health-giving 

 powers. 



Now we must make a swoop northward again to 

 the coast of Siberia, which has a climate analogous 

 to that of Labrador, its relative geographical position 

 being the same. It is a bitterly barren land, and its 

 mighty areas are almost destitute of inhabitants. But 

 a little farther south we come to the island empire of 

 Japan, which, although less favourably situated than 

 our own cluster of islands as regards climate, bears no 

 bad resemblance to them. Owing to the fact that they 

 have no great ocean current laving their shores and 

 bringing from tropical climes a steady influx of warmth, 

 their vicissitudes of temperature are great, as great as 

 those of Eastern Canada, and for the same reasons. 

 Yet, being set as they are in the midst of the sea, and 

 being, like New Zealand, a series of long narrow islands, 

 no part of which is any great distance from the coast, 

 the Japanese territories are wonderfully healthy, and 

 breed, as we know, an amazingly virile race, with whom 

 the world has found that it must reckon very carefully. 

 The temptation to enlarge upon the climatic conditions 

 of Japan are great, but must sternly be repressed 

 because of dwindling space. It must suffice to say 

 that nowhere in the whole world is agriculture carried 

 to so high a point of perfection as here, for nowhere 

 are so painstaking and persevering a people to be 

 found. Their great drawbacks are the prevalence of 



