The Days of a Man [1900 



A sup^b crowding cemeteries which hold the right of way, 

 tnp started straight up a rock staircase two or three 

 hundred feet high. But having surmounted the hill 

 (which yields superb views of Obama Bay and its 

 bounding mountains) it widened into a sort of turn- 

 pike, expensively built though washed out in numer- 

 ous places by lawless streams not held in check. 

 Farther on it passed into the clouds, invisible preci- 

 pices dropping off on either side. Along the way we 

 heard a charming song-sparrow, and higher up a 

 wren with an elaborate melody first, the simple 

 "teacher-teacher" common to many little birds, then 

 a variety of charming notes. Crickets were frequent, 

 and cicadas of several species, insistent and per- 

 sistent. One I made out to be the noted bridlebit 

 insect, from its loud and curious jingle. Grape and 

 greenbrier vines grew in the flowery bush and the 

 blue "butterfly flower " Commelyna in the 

 ditches, along with the familiar heal-all or Brunella. 

 At Unzen the boiling springs and sulphur fumaroles 

 spread over about a mile. But the two most striking 

 phenomena, the geyser of "Loud Wailing" which 

 throws a jet ten feet high, and the excessively hot 

 spring called " Second Class Hell," are of trifling note 

 compared with the Yellowstone displays. 



4 



Returning to our hotel at Nagasaki, we found 

 there many American ladies, most of them handsome 

 and attractive, the wives and daughters of naval 

 officers from the Philippines, then engaged in hunting 

 Boxers in China. As has been observed, young lieu- 

 tenants and Anglican rectors often have the pick of 

 IT 26 3 



