The Days of a Man 1900 



of sculpins, blennies, and rockfish of the north re- 

 mained largely unknown until our visit. 



Count At Sendai we were asked to take with us the 



young Count Uesugi (a student of Spooner, Otaki, 

 and Kokubo), a very intelligent, fragile, undersized 

 youth of about eighteen, with long face, grave de- 

 meanor, and quiet dignity. Though a descendant - 

 the last - - of a famous Japanese warrior of the house 

 of Yonezawa, Uesugi was emphatically a man of 

 peace unfortunately marked, however, for early 

 death. 



Before leaving "the hidden hills" we received by 

 the hands of two special envoys a pleasant invita- 

 tion from the mayor of Morioka, capital of Rikuchu, 

 to visit their city on our way north. Then finding 

 that we planned to stop over at Ichinoseki, one of 

 the men went on ahead and reserved rooms for us 

 there at Ishihashi ("Stone Bridge") Inn. Arriving, 

 we found that excellent hotel decorated with Japanese 

 flags and otherwise quite prepared for the American 



The eanh- scientists. Hardly had we established ourselves, 

 nowever > when a vigorous earthquake began to 

 thump and sway the house with some degree of vio- 

 lence, and for more than a minute; but as neither 

 Otaki nor the maid stirred or remarked on it, we too 

 appeared not to notice ! Afterward, upon my inquir- 

 ing about general earthquake etiquette, Otaki said 

 the shock was a rather severe one, so that we should 

 have been perfectly justified in running downstairs 

 into the street. Later we heard that the disturbance, 

 radiating from the volcano Azumayama, was very 

 violent in the mountains, a number of woodsmen 

 having been killed. 



Ichinoseki, poverty-stricken and sleepy, lies never- 



c 48 n 



