PEEFACE. 



When iu the present memoir I attempted a brief sketch of mining in Japan in 

 its technical, statistical and administrative aspects, I was fully aware, that much 

 was still wanting for a complete picture of the same. Although I have now been 

 for several years in the country, part of which time I have been occupied in the 

 technical supervision of mines and reduction-works, and although I when travell- 

 ing, whether on service or as private individual, have as far as possible improv- 

 ed the opportunity for collecting information, it is yet only a fraction of the 

 large number of mines of various kinds, which I have learnt to know from per- 

 sonal observation, while with regard to the remainder I have had to be guided 

 by communications from others. 



In my efforts as far as lay in my power to discover and suggest the meaus for 

 advancing the mining industry iu Japan, it became my duty clearly to expose 

 the still existing defects, and I trust, that the frankness, with which this has 

 been done in the sole interest of the problem to be solved, will on all sides be 

 appreciated in that sense. 



The lecture was originally delivered in the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Natur- 

 itnd Völker-Kunde Ostasiens. As the transactions of the said society, on account 

 of the language in which they are published are here accessible to only a narrow 

 circle of readers, an English edition w.ts decided upon by the Honourable Board 

 of Directors Mr. II. Kato and Mr. A. Hamao, of the Tokio JJaigaku Sangakubu, 



