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Till-. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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Photograph by A. Nielen 



JAPAN DRESSES HER TREES FOR WINTER 



These jackets, or hoods of straw, are put over the 

 tender tree-tops in autumn to protect them against 

 frost. 



"Mountains and Mankind," we see how 

 the Greeks "seized eagerly on any strik- 

 ing piece of hill scenery and connected it 

 with a legend or a shrine" ; how ''they 

 took their highest mountain — broad- 

 backed Olympus — for the home of the 

 gods" ; and how "they found in the cliffs 

 of Delphi a dwelling for their greatest 

 oracle and a center for their patriot- 

 ism" — when one remembers all this, one 

 has but to substitute such names as that 

 of the far loftier "peerless peak" of Fuji- 

 san (Fuji-yama), or of Ontake, up to 

 whose sacred summit-shrine the white- 

 robed pilgrims toil by thousands, in 



sunshine and in storm, to wor- 

 ship; or of those still holier 



fanes in far-off Ise in Yumato. 

 where only the Emperor himself 

 or his chosen representative may 

 enter, on behalf of his people, to 



hold converse with the spirits of 

 the "Divine Ancestors," in order 

 to see how close a resemblance 

 exists between the influence of 

 similar physical surroundings on 

 two peoples endowed with the 

 like characteristics of a lively, 

 artistic, and impressionable na- 

 ture. 



Had Pausanias been able to 

 pursue an itinerary in the Land 

 of the Rising Sun similar to that 

 which he followed in his "De- 

 scription of Greece," he would 

 have furnished us with pictures 

 of scenery and observation of 

 the folk-lore and legends of 

 Japan that would, in a hundred 

 separate instances, have been 

 equally true of either of these 

 beautiful lands. 



MORE STRIKING CLIMATIC CON- 

 TRASTS THAN IN ANY 

 OTHER LAND 



The climatic conditions of 

 Japan offer contrasts of a more 

 striking character than a n y 

 other country of similar area in 

 the world. While in the north- 

 ernmost island we have mainly 

 subarctic features, in the south- 

 ernmost we find them subtrop- 

 ical. Moreover, on the west coast 

 of the main island we find both 

 those extremes represented in 

 the same region. 



The cold, dry northwesterly winds of 

 winter that sweep across from Siberia 

 gather up the moisture over the Japan 

 Sea and deposit it in a snowfall often 

 heavy enough to bury whole villages. 

 Intercommunication between house and 

 house is then maintained only by means 

 of sheltered arcades, and buildings of 

 importance need to be identified by sign- 

 posts stuck in the snow to indicate the 

 "Post-office is below," "The police sta- 

 tion will be found underneath this spot." 

 Nevertheless, in the same region the sum- 

 mer is almost tropical in character. 



