on of her colonies is the result of that teeming island seed-bed
at home; while the very smallness of the mother country is the guarantee
of its supremacy over its dependencies, because it is too small either
to oppress them or to get along without them. Now an Asiatic variant of
English history is promised us by growing Japan.

[Sidenote: Economic limitations of their small area.]

Though political supremacy is possible even to an island of
insignificant size, both the advantages arid the grave disadvantages of
small area are constantly asserting themselves. Some developments
peculiar to large territory are here eliminated at the start. For
instance, robbery and brigandage, which were so long a scourge in
peninsular Greece, were unheard of on the small Aegean islands.
Sheep-raising was at an early date safer in England than on the
Continent, because wolves were earlier exterminated there. Bio-geography
shows an increasing impoverishment in the flora and fauna, of small
islands with distance from the mainland. In the Pacific Ocean, this
progressive impoverishment from west to east has had great influence
upon human life in the islands. In Polynesia, therefore, all influences
of the chase and of pastoral life are wanting, while in Melanesia, with
its larger islands and larger number of land animals, hunting still
plays an important part, and is the chief source of subsistence for many
New Guinea villages.[929] Therefore a corresponding decay of projectile
weapons is to be traced west to east, and is conspicuous in those crumbs
of land constituting Polynesia and Micronesia. The limit of the bow and
arrow includes the northeastern portion of the Philippine group, cuts
through the Malay Archipelago so as to include the Moluccas and Flores,
includes Melanesia as far as Tonga or the Friendly Isles, but excludes
Micronesia, Polynesia and Australia, Even in Melanesia, however, bows
and arrows are not universal; they are lacking in peripheral islands
like New Caledonia and New Ireland.[930]

The restriction of trees, also, with the exception of the coco-palm and
pandanus, has had its effect upon boat making. This general
impoverishment is unmistakably reflected in the whole civilization of
the smaller islands of Polynesia and Micronesia, especially in the
Paumota and Pelew groups. In the countless coralline islands which strew
the Pacific, another restricting factor is found in their monotonous
geological formation. Owing to t