472 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Even athletics are not wanting in this eastern university. The 

 athletic club consists of seven sections — rowing, track athletics, base- 

 ball, football, lawn tennis, swimming. Judo (a kind of wrestling), 

 fencing and archery. In the spring, when the rosy cloud of cherry 

 blossoms covers the bank of the Eiver Sumida, the rowing club holds 

 a regatta. In the autumn the athletic section holds a meeting in the 

 recreation ground of the university. Eunning, jumping, hurdle races, 

 etc., last the whole afternoon, and the scene is as animated as even 

 a Yale-Princeton 'rooter' could wish; the sloping hillside of the arena- 

 like ground is filled with cheering crowds, and the mingling of cos- 

 tumes, colors and gestures add to the animation of the scene. In the 

 matter of supplemental athletics, we may note that swimming is given 

 a conspicuous place; a teacher even takes volunteer students under his 

 charge during the summer vacation. 



As a special development in the research work of the university one 

 might briefly mention the laboratory for the study of earthquakes, 

 which occur so frequently, and often, indeed, with dangerous results. 

 And it was with the aim of studying these phenomena, from stand- 

 points both of applied and of pure science, that the seismological ob- 

 servatory was founded in 1880. It has since been in charge of Pro- 

 fessors Sekiya and Omoiri. In fact it is due to the researches of these 

 scientists that the horizontal pendulum and the vertical motion seismo- 

 graphs were designed. By means of these delicate instruments it is 

 possible to measure earthquakes and other earth movements of different 

 grades of magnitude, ranging from microscopic tremors and pulsations 

 up to destructive earthquakes. The instruments are so sensitive that 

 an earthquake in England can be recorded in Japan, and from this the 

 rate of traveling of seismic waves has been calculated. There has also 

 been set up recently a horizontal pendulum for continuous registra- 

 tions. These are an interesting collection, showing the development 

 of seismographs from crude Chinese devices to the most elaborate and 

 modern apparatus. 



In the zoological museum there are the splendid collections of the 

 glassy sponges. Hundreds of valuable specimens have been collected 

 through Professor Ijima's constant and earnest exploration of the 

 Sagami Bay. They are so fragile that they might easily be crumbled 

 into pieces by the fisherman's rough hands. One may easily conceive 

 how still is the abyss of 200 fathoms. The first two parts of beautiful 

 monographs have come from the hands of Professor Ijima, who has 

 been working on these delicate creatures for over ten years. Besides 

 this collection, there are hundreds of curious creatures peculiar to 

 Japan, rare specimens which arouse the enthusiasm and possibly even 

 the envy of our foreign confreres. Indeed, every year forms which 

 are new to science come to the museum. In connection with the sci- 



