660 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [ciiap. 



and from which the next day we were to ascend the summit of 

 Asamayama. 



Rokuriga-hara is situated at a height of 1270 metres above 

 the sea. There was no inn here, nor any place inhabited all the 

 year round, but only a large open shed. This was divided into 

 two by a passage in the middle. We settled on one side of this, 

 making our bed as well as we could on the raised floor, and i3ro- 

 tecting ourselves from the night air with coverings which our 

 thoughtful host at Kusatsu had lent us. On the other side of 

 the passage our kago bearers and guide passed the night crowd- 

 ing round a log fire made on a stone foundation in the middle 

 of the floor. The kago bearers were protected from the very 

 perceptible night cold only by thin cotton blouses. In order to 

 warm them I ordered an abundant distribution of saki, a piece 

 of generosity that did not cost very much, but which clearly won 

 me the undivided admiration of all the coolies. They passed 

 the greater part of the night without sleep, with song and jest, 

 with their saki bottles and tobacco pipes. We slept well and 

 warmly after partaking of an abundant supper of fowl and eggs, 

 cooked in different ways by Kok-San with his usual talent and 

 his usual variety of dishes. 



We had been informed that at this place we would hear a 

 constant noise from the neighbouring volcano, and that hurtful 

 gases (probably carbonic acid) sometimes accumulated in such 

 quantities in the neighbouring woods that men and horses would 

 be suffocated if they spent the night there. We listened in vain 

 for the noise, and did not observe any trace of such gases. All 

 was as peaceful as if the glowing hearth in the interior of the 

 earth was hundreds of miles away. But we did not require the 

 evidence of the column of smoke which was seen to rise from 

 the mountain top, which formed the goal of our visit, or of 

 the inhabitants who survived the latest eruption, to come 

 to the conclusion that we were in the neighbourhood of an 

 enormous, still active volcano. Everywhere round our resting- 

 place lay heaps of small pieces of lava which had been thrown 

 out of the volcano (so-called lapilli), and which had not yet had 

 time to weather sufficiently to serve as an under-stratum for 

 any vegetation, and a little from the hut there was a solidified 

 lava stream of great depth. 



■ Next day, the 4th October, we ascended the summit of the 

 mountain. At first we travelled in kago over a valley filled 

 with pretty close wood, then the journey was continued on foot 

 up the steep volcanic cone, covered with small lava blocks and 

 lapilli. The way was staked out with small heaps of stones 

 raised at a distance of about 100 metres apart. Near the crater 

 we found at one of these cairns a little Shinto shrine, built of 

 sticks. Its sides were only half a metre in length. Our guide 



