28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 
Abrasions of the Coast of Japan. 
BY GEORGE DAVIDSON. 
In approaching the coast of Japan on the voyage from San Francisco, there 
is opportunity for seeing but a very few miles near the southern eastern 
point of the entrance to to the Gulf of Yedo. This we made before daylight, 
and so far as I could make it out, there was no feature resembling the well 
marked terraced points and capes met with on the northwest coast of North 
America. 
The surface features of the coast are nevertheless well marked and 
distinctive, reminding one of parts of the Pacific coast of Mexico, and of parts 
north of latitude forty, except the absence of the heavily timbered slopes and 
summits. On the coast of Japan the hills rise steeply to elevations reaching 
- two and three thousand feet, and are either cultivated or covered with a dark 
green chapparal, with occasional limited masses of small timber. There are 
no indications of broad deep valleys, but mostly of short narrow valleys with 
sharply sloped sides. 
Aiter entering the Gulf of Yeddo the only terraces I could detect are at Cape 
Canon, on the western side about twelve miles south of Yokohama, and at a 
the part of the Gulf where a moderately sharp contraction of the width of the 
Gulf takes place. At this point are exhibited some of the characteristics of 
the terraced points off our Pacific Coast. The coast-liné is of quite recent 
formation; the stratification somewhat distorted, and has a moderately large 
inclination; but the surface of the contracted terraces is parallel with the sea- 
level, and has evidently been planed off by the Glacier which moved along 
the face of the sloping higher land. On the surface of these terraces lies a 
thin layer of soil which is cultivated. 
Upon leaving Yokohama for Nagasaki I had another opportunity of ex- 
amining this terrace and confirming my previous judgment. Thence to 06 
Sima, the coast line was passed in the night time until we made Ise Bay, 
where the high, broken and dark outline of the coast hills is seen. Every 
hillside is covered with dark green chapparal and small timber; the hills 
reach two thousand feet elevation and give no indications of extended valleys. 
Skirting along this coast in moderately thick weather we saw no terraced 
shores until we neared the promontory off which lies the island of 06, with 
its lighthouse, in latitude 32° 25°. Here were unmistakable evidences of ter- 
raced coast line, not in one or two cases, but for miles to the northeast of 06 
Sima (a), and especially in the island itself. The single terrace of this 
island is very well marked parallel to the sea-level, and is about 100 feet above 
the water. When abreast of it several slightly projecting terraced points are 
seen along the coast to the northeastward, and also on the coast immediately 
abreast of the island. But I did not see the terraced lines along the north- 
(a) Sima = Island. 
