SCENERY OF KUMI. 469 



A survey of the small island of Kurai, placed us once 

 again among our ancient friends, the Me'ia-co-shimites. 

 Our welcome was as polite and ceremonious, the same 

 attention was paid to our wants, and a similar active and 

 a vigilant espionage was bestowed upon all our movements, 

 resembling that we experienced at Pa-tchung-san. 

 They erected rude huts as watch-houses near our tents, 

 supplied us with mats, lent us horses, and accompanied 

 us from village to village, in a similar manner. We found 

 the scenery of the island in many parts very pretty and 

 picturesque, and even in some places discovered scenes 

 of considerable grandeur and sublimity. Along the coast 

 we were frequently obliged to trust implicitly to the 

 sagacity and sure-footedness of our tough little horses, 

 which conducted us safely by many a "mauvais pas" 

 along the edge of precipitous cliffs and overhanging 

 rocks. The villages are most delightfully situated and 

 often laid out with very considerable taste, the houses 

 being neatly built, and prettily disposed among clumps 

 of trees. In the centre of the island we were obliged to 

 ascend on horseback a stone-road cut in a winding 

 manner up the side of a hill, in order to obtain a favour- 

 able view of the island. About half-way up we found a 

 beautiful clear spring shaded with trees, and in fording 

 the tranquil pool formed by the trickling water, I noticed 

 numbers of aquatic beetles of the genus Cyclom with 

 shining, polished, pitch-black elytra, short, broad legs, 

 formed like the flattened blades of paddles, disporting on 

 the surface like so many gigantic whirl wigs, (Gyrinus 

 natator,} those silvery-looking little insects which weave 

 mystic mazes during the summer-time in the ponds of 



