TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 183 



the stars and the monsoons. The Eiu'opean races have, on the contrary, borrowed 

 freely from every coimtry that had anything good to give. From Asia the list of 

 our adoptions is large, for from it we have derived cotton and the cotton manuftic- 

 tiire, silk and the silk manufacture, paper, without which the printing-press would 

 be worthless, the sugar-cane and its extracts, tea, coffee, spices, and opium. Nor 

 must the domestic fowl be omitted, for that valuable acquisition is of Asiatic 

 origin. To America we owe the potato, maize, the cinchona, the tobacco, and the 

 turkey, and to Asia and America jointly all our most valuable dyes. To Africa our 

 obligations are smaller ; but palm oil, the gallinae, and the ass may be named with 

 respect. As to the invention of written language and to monuments of a high order, 

 the only parts of Europe which boast of having possessed them are Greece and Italy, 

 which in the march of ci'sdlization had so long preceded all the rest. The nations 

 of Em'ope, now the foremost in letters, were (the Runic characters excepted, which 

 probably never extended beyond the priesthood) as ignorant of them 2000 years ago 

 as were the Mexicans when first seen by Em-opeans. In this respect, as indeed in 

 architecture, they have been but dextrous imitators. This is a striking contrast to- 

 the precocious races of Asia, many rude tribes of whom, less civdized than ancient 

 Gauls, Germans, and Britons, have been in possession of alphabets of their own in- 

 vention from time immemorial. 



The most favomed parts of Em'ope, even those which are now the seats of the 

 highest civilization, afford, like India and China, examples of civilization retarded 

 through disadvantage of physical geography, without any proved inferiority of race. 

 Oiu- own island yields two signal instances, Wales and the Highlands of Scotland. 

 Had the whole area of Britain been no better than they, it is quite certain that we 

 could not have been what we are — powei-fril, opulent, populous, and great. Their 

 inhabitants, compared with those of the fi'uitful parts of the island, were as the 

 Gonds and GaiTows of India to the Hindus, or the Mj'o-tse of China to the Chinese. 

 From their coiurage and locality they were difficult to subdue, and their unavoidable 

 poverty ofiered no temptation. It is only by slow degrees, and the influence and 

 example of a more advanced nation, that a people so circumstanced is brought within 

 the pale of civilization. The process is, at present, in rapid advancement in the 

 mountains of Wales and Scotland, even to the extinction of their barbarous although 

 masculine and forcible tongues ; but it has taken eighteen centuries to bring the 

 Welsh and Highlanders to their present state from that which they were in when 

 Gibbon describes one of them (and the other was probably little better) as consist- 

 ing of "ti'oops of naked barbarians," who "chased the deer of the forest over cold 

 and lonely heaths, amid gloomy hills and lakes covered with a blue mist." 



Journey in the Interior of Japan, with the Ascent of Fusiyama. By E. Alcock. 



The paper commenced with a description of the difficulties which the wiiter 

 encountered in Yeddo, in the early part of his journey in Japan. A large retinue 

 accompanied him. The journey was begim in September 1860. On their way 

 they had to cross the river Said on the shoulders of porters, who were made re- 

 sponsible for the safety of the passengers ; if any accident occm'red to the travellers, 

 the men had nothing to do but to drown themselves, as no excuse was taken. At 

 fii-st their way up the mountain lay through wa\ang fields of corn, succeeded by a 

 belt of high rank grass. Soon, however, they entered the margin of the wood 

 which surroimded the base, and which crept high up the side of the moimtain. 

 At first they foimd trees of large growth — goodly timber of the oak, the pine, and 

 the beech. At Hachimondo they left their horses and the last trace of permanent 

 habitations and the haunts of men. Soon after the wood became thinner and more 

 stunted in growth, while the cork and birch took the place of the oak and the pine. 

 Just before they entered the forest-ground a lark rose on the wing — the first the 

 author had ever seen or heard in Japan. As a general rule, the birds had no song, 

 the flowers no fragrance, and fruit and vegetables no savour or delicacy. In the 

 wood-belt were deer, wild boars, and horses. They soon aftei-wards lost all traces 

 of life, vegetable or animal. On their journey the}' rested a little in huts or caves, 

 partly dug out of the side and roofed. There were eleven of these resting-places, 

 which were one or two miles apart, between Hachimondo and the summit of the 

 moimtain. The latter half of tne jom'ney was the most arduous. On the top ol 



