THE ARSENAL. 341 



After landing, I took the opportunity of inspecting 

 tlie dock and the marine arsenal " Yokoska," built by the 

 French for the Japanese Government at the cost of 

 two and a half millions of dollars, and covering forty- 

 one acres — twenty-seven occupied by the harbour, and 

 fourteen by the dry dock, workshops, factories, found- 

 ries, slips, forges, and furnaces. The whole of the 

 works are on a magnificent scale, and reflect great 

 credit upon the enterprising engineers. Unfortunately, 

 the pleasure I had anticipated of making a more minute 

 survey was somewhat marred by a heavy downpour of 

 rain, which, however, did not prevent my being highly 

 amused with the new aspect under which the Japanese 

 now appeared. Those belonging to the better classes 

 were threading their way on wooden clogs, three to 

 four inches high, under the shelter of an immense flat 

 umbrella, made of white paper ; the latter, manufactured 

 of the bark of the mulberry tree (Mortis papyrifera), 

 say of the young shoots, is a most useful article 

 impervious to wet, its tissue being soft and at the 

 same time tough. Cut into squares it is used as pocket- 

 handkerchiefs, — ladies always carrying a few in their 

 wide sleeves, and flinging them away as soon as 

 they have served their purpose, — as napkins and towels, 

 and especially as window-panes instead of glass. For 

 this purpose, the outer wall of a house consists of a 



