ABSTRACT

The Japanese islands have a considerable coast development, and possess, especially upon the south and south-west sides, many sheltered bays, which however in many cases are too shallow to allow access to large ships. The Inland Sea of Japan is sown with numerous, for the most part volcanic, islets, and is altogether so shallow that an elevation of the bottom by only twenty fathoms would in many places produce dry passages between the neighbouring larger islands. In the Tsushima current the Japanese Sea at the beginning of May has a temperature of 19-20 C. The cold currents in the Northern Pacific which touch Japan or have a mediate influence upon its climate, have their origin partly in the Sea of Okhotsk, partly in Behring's Sea. Moreover in other parts of the Inland Sea the water has in winter a lower, in summer an essentially higher, temperature, than in the neighbouring open seas.