THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 317 



with white clouds, marked the coast-line. Possibly 

 the pilots went unnecessarily about among the 

 islands in order to make the navigation appear as 

 intricate as possible ; but if not, they must have had 

 the bump of locality most enormously developed in 

 order to remember the way. On some of the more 

 richly wooded hills there was table-land at the top, 

 with green cultivated fields and tracts of warm sunny 

 pasture spotted with little black cattle. It being just 

 after the close of the wet season (which was late this 

 year), and in the middle of summer, the country 

 looked exceeding fresh and green. The variety and 

 succession of views were too great to allow many of 

 them being impressed upon the mind; and we felt 

 as if making a rapid survey of a large picture-gallery 

 or a long moving panorama. This kind of work is, 

 after all, not very satisfactory. Goethe has said that, 

 when he desired to understand the power of nature, 

 he selected an eckschen, or little corner, for contem- 

 plation. A certain repose is necessary if we are to 

 realise the life, the power of nature, when manifested 

 in the translucent depth of air, the calm sleeping sea, 

 the awful mountain -forms; and to appreciate her 

 wilder moods, she must be seen when shaken by her 

 own fury, driving the clouds across the sky, lashing 

 the waves into foam, and tossing the arms of the 

 trees toward the darkened heaven. 



Passing into a picturesque loch, with high dark 

 wooded hills around, and a mile or two in breadth, 



