its winter garb. During those two days a furious typhoon was raging at Yeddo, which the natives were reported to have looked upon as a sign of the wrath of the deities at this profanation of their stormy home. Sir Rutherford Alcock, however, believes that this was a foreign invention; he could find no trace of such a feeling among the Japanese; and it is certain that the bonzes of the temples, among whom it would most likely manifest itself, never showed the least token that they considered the visit to the sacred mountain as an intrusion or desecration; on the contrary, they vied with each other in hospitality to the tourists.

The richest proprietor of the district through which they passed was named Agawa Farozayamang, and he is not a Daimio. "We were told," says Alcock, "that he had refused to be ennobled, that he might escape the penance of a yearly visit to Yeddo, with other burdens. One could not but approve his taste; and as I passed the gates that led up to his house, between a double row of noble pine-trees, I thought he might easily find much in his country life to compensate him for the barren honors and burdensome dignities which the Tycoon has in his gift, and figured to myself an existence not unlike that of a wealthy landholder in England, whose pleasure it is to spend his days on his own estates and among his tenants." This instance, which we can hardly suppose to be an isolated one, indicates the existence of a class whose presence has not heretofore been suspected in Japan-gentlemen of large estates, wholly distinct from the lordly Daimios and their truculent retainers.

ments.

Returning from Fusiyama Sir Rutherford spent three weeks at Atami, a little fishing and bathing place on the coast, somewhat noted for its manufactures of paper and of wooden cups, platters, and toys. These are turned from various fragrant or ornamental woods, the growth of the surrounding hills. The workmanship is excellent, though executed by the simplest instruThe lathe is an upright spindle, turned by a boy with two straps, which he pulls alternately. The article is fixed to this spindle, the workman giving the last polish to the varnish by his fingers and a little whiting. Women sit at the cottage doors weaving cotton in a primitive loom. The fishermen go down to the bay and return laden with the finny spoils, the visitor sometimes participating in the sport.

The strangers were accommodated in the principal bathing house, usually reserved fo Daimios and their families. There were half a dozen large baths filled from the hot sulphur springs. The apartments were of good size, opening upon

FISHERMEN AT ATAMI.

a pretty garden. A broad flight of steps led up to the rooms on the first floor, with a balcony commanding a beautiful view of the sea. The inhabitants were kind and courteous to the strangers. A favorite Scotch terrier of Sir Rutherford having died was buried in the garden, the proprietor helping to dig his grave; a group of assistants of all ranks gathered around with sorrowful faces; the priest of the temple brought water and incense-sticks, and placed a rough tombstone at the head of the grave. Atami, where no foreigner had ever before set foot, seems to be almost a counterpart of a thousand quiet sea-side resorts in Europe and America.

At Atami Sir Rutherford saw the whole process of paper manufacture as practiced by the Japanese. The peculiarity is that it is made wholly from the bark of trees. In toughness it exceeds any thing produced in Europe. Even the finer sorts can hardly be torn; the stronger ones defy every effort. The Japanese use paper for many purposes for which we employ cloth and other materials. They use it for the sliding partitions of their houses, for handkerchiefs, and for over-garments; twisted together, it forms the only cords in common use, and so on almost indefinitely. The varieties are numerous; Sir Rutherford sent samples of sixty-seven different kinds to the London Exhibition. Three several kinds of bark are used at Atami. The first, which forms the foundation, is produced by a shrub; this is stripped off, dried, steeped in water, the outer rind scraped off; then boiled in ley until soft, when it is beaten to a pulp with

JAPANESE JUNKS.

thence by water through the inland sea to Osaca, the chief sea-port on Niphon, and across that island to Yeddo. He was accompanied by Mr. De Witt, the head of the Dutch Mission. The nine days' journey across Kiusu presented the same general features as were observed in the trip to Fusiyama. The soil, however, is

poorer, and the face of the country rather rocky; the inhabitants were consequently less prosperous. Still, says Sir Rutherford, we continually met with "wellcultivated valleys, winding among the hills, which were graced with terraces stretching far up toward their summits, wherever a scanty soil could be found or carried, with a favorable aspect for the crops. We traversed some wildlooking passes, where hill and rock seemed tumbled in chaotic confusion from their volcanic beds. Frequent glimpses were caught of the sea-coast and bays, from which the road seldom strays very far inland. Pretty hamlets and clumps of fine trees were rarely wanting; and if the villages looked poor, and the peasant's home (bare of furniture at all times) more than usually void of comfort, yet all the people looked as if they had not only a roof to cover them, but rice to eat, which is more than can be said of our populations in Europe."

Under the guise of a guard of honor, they were always accompanied by some armed retain

ers of each Daimio through whose dominions they passed; the real object being to keep them upon the highroad. One day, in passing through the domains of the Prince of Fizen, they came close to a coal-mine, within a hundred yards of the road. A temporary barricade had been put up across the sideroad which led to the mine. They went round this, and were going toward the mine, when the guards shouted to them to come back; their vociferations were disregarded, and they hesitated to proceed to actual violence. So the travelers reached the mouth of the mine, which is the one from which the foreign steamers are mainly supplied with coal. It is of poor quality, and badly worked. A similar scene was enacted whenever they attempted to turn aside to see any object of interest.

Having crossed Kiusu, they embarked on board a junk, upon which they voyaged 250 miles along the Suonada Sea, which separates Kiusu from Niphon. A Japanese junk is very like a Chi

nese one. The poop rises at an abrupt angle of 50 degrees from the main-deck to the stern. How the sailors manage to keep their feet on

SAILORS AT DINNER.

VOL. XXVIII.-No. 163.-C

STEERSMAN AND MATE.

such a steep and slippery inclined plane is a mystery. One of the servants slipped, and rolled down to the lower regions, breaking his

ribs. The Japanese along the coast are a sea-going race, but the landsmen, like almost all Orientals, have a horror of the sea, and never travel by water where they can go by land.When the Embassadors were appointed for England, their first inquiry was for a remedy against sea - sickness; and when, not long after their embarkation, the natural consequences ensued, they were vociferous in their expressions of wonder that the Europeans, who spent so much of their time on ship-board, had never, with all their wisdom, found

tion. The reason of this does not appear to have been quite clear to the British and Dutch ministers; but they consented to be ruled by the wishes of the officials, and so avoided Miaco. The mysteries of the court of the "Spiritual Emperor" remain untold for the present.

Not far from Osaca is a castle of the Tycoon, reputed to be the finest of the five belonging to him, though it appears that none of the present

CARRYING THE MAILS.

THE CASTLE OF OSACA.

dynasty have inhabited it. This, at least, the ministers thought they might visit; not so their Japanese escort, who contrived a series of ingenious pretexts to balk their wishes. However, when the stay at Osaca was over, and the strangers were fairly on the way to Yeddo, the escort took a circuitous route which gave a view of the outer walls of the castle, which we here reproduce. It is a favorable specimen of the castle of a Japanese Daimio. In general these may be described as consisting of a moat surrounded by a wall, generally built of mud intersected by layers of tiles, and plastered over, sometimes with parapets and loopholed for musketry. If the lord is one of great pretensions, the walls will be flanked by turrets, and something like a pagoda of two or three stories will rise above the dead level of the other roofs.

Some odd and characteristic incidents marked the journey across Niphon. Now and then the travelers would go over the ground which had just been traversed by the cortége of a great Daimio; and then for miles there would be piles of little sand-heaps by the way-side, signifying that the road had been freshly swept and sanded in his honor. At the entrance of every hongen, or inn, a mound of sand is piled up on each side, when a visitor of rank is expected, signifying that the place has been freshly swept and garnished for his reception. At intervals they met a man stripped to his loin-cloth.