DESCRIPTION OF JAPAN. 91 



incoming steamer." Every Japanese desires to make at least 

 one pilgTiraage to this magnificent mountain, a representa 

 tion of wliicli is one of tlie most familiar features of Japan- 

 ese art. In the south of Hondo, mountains of eruptive 

 granite rise abruptly along the coast, constituting to a con- 

 siderable extent the characteristic scenery of the charming 

 Inland Sea. These summits are sometimes of durable rock, 

 furnishing excellent building-stone, and usually covered 

 with perennial verdure. Sometimes, on the contrary, the 

 granite readily decomposes, so as to form lidges and rounded 

 hill-tops of loose, white, barren debris, from which the fer- 

 tilizing elements have been washed into the luxuriant valleys 

 below. Here are the most wealthy and renowned of Japan- 

 ese cities, surrounded by the finest and most productive fields 

 to be seen in the world. Saikio, the Jerusalem of Dai Nip- 

 pon, celebrated for its magnificent temples and monuments, 

 its manufactures of silk, and its beautiful women, was for 

 many centuries the sacred city of the Mikado. Seven miles 

 to the north lies the great lake Biwa, sixty miles in length, 

 which, with its numerous steamers, furnishes admirable 

 means of communication with the interior. Twenty miles 

 to the south, at the head of the Inland Sea, is the old com- 

 mercial metropolis of the empire, Ozaka. This is the Venice 

 of tlie East, intersected in all parts by canals, and containing 

 a population of half a million. It is said that five hundred 

 junks and other vessels, from all parts of the country and 

 from abroad, enter this port every day. An excellent rail- 

 road, forty miles long, connects Ozaka with Saikio on the one 

 side, and Hiogo on the other. The population of the level 

 region along this railroad is not less than three millions. 



The climate of Japan is exceedingly favorable to both ani- 

 mal and vegetable life. There is everywhere abundant moist- 

 ure and plenty of sunshine. The air is pure and in constant 

 motion, since both land and sea breezes exert their <benign, 

 health-giving influences, while an occasional typhoon perfects 

 the national system of ventilation. The Black Stream, a 

 warm oceanic current flowinq; northward along: the eastern 

 coast of the islands, greatly moderates the winter tempera- 

 ture, and prevents severe and untimely frosts. On the west 

 coast, north of the thirty-fifth parallel, there is an abundance 

 of snow, though the cold is never intense. 



