Abstract
DURING the past five years a work of great national and scientific importance has been proceeding in Japan; little has been heard of it in Europe, and none of its results have been visible amongst us in England until ss ithin the last few months. The Japanese National Survey, under the superintendence of Dr. Naumann, formerly Professor of Geology in the University of Tokio, has during the period above mentioned been steadily progressing; it has revealed hitherto unknown features of the country, and has thrown a flood of light on its geography, geology, and resources, actual and possible. A period has now been arrived at in the history of the Survey: its Director, after five years labour at this particular work, and as many more in the Chair of Geology in the University of Tokio, returns to Europe, leaving the task to be carried out by the Japanese whom he has trained. Some tangible results of the work have, as already mentioned, been for the first time placed before the European public. In the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society might a short time ago be seen by any one who desired to do so a series of maps, printed and manuscript, with numerous plans, illustrations, and sketches, exhibited by Dr. Naumann, and representing to some extent the work of five years. Samples of these were also to he seen at the Exhibition of Geographical Appliances in Great Marlborough Street, amongst others an orographic map of Japin, and several illustrations—one of the mountain summits in the neighbourhood of the active volcaso Asainayama being especially striking. The present, then, seems a suitable time for describing the Survey, the work it has set before it, that which it has succeeded in doing so far, and the effect of its work on our knowledge of the country.
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The Japanese National Survey and its Results . Nature 33, 617–619 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/033617a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033617a0