90 SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTES. 
the west, and the narrow Channel of Kind on the east. Sikok is, as its name im- 
plies, divided into four provinces ; as, however, we did not even sight its shores we 
had no opportunity of obtaining any information about it. It is about 150 miles 
long, with an average breadth of 70 miles, and is computed to contain about 
10,000 square miles. 
With the Suwonda Sea, however we are more closely interested, for upon its 
margin is the Port of Hiogo, opened by the late treaty to the commerce of the 
West. 
This port is situated in the Bay of Othosaka, opposite to the celebrated city of 
that name, from which it is ten or twelve miles distant. The Japanese Govern- 
ment have expended vast sums in their engineering efforts to improve its once 
dangerous anchorage. A breakwater, which was erected at a prodigious expense, 
and which cost the lives of numbers of workmen, has proved sufficient for the 
object for which it was designed. There is a tradition that a superstition existed 
in connection with this dyke, to the effect that it would never be finished, unless 
an individual could be found sufficiently patriotic to suffer himself to be buried in 
it. A Japannese Curtius was not long in forthcoming, to whom a debt of grati- 
tude will be due in all time to come, from every British ship that rides securely at 
her anchor behind the breakwater. 
Hiogo has now become the port of Ghosaken and Miaco, and will in all probabil- 
ity, be the principal port of European trade in the empire. The city is described 
as equal in size to Nagasaki. When Kainipfer visited it, he found 300 junks at 
anchor in its bay. 
The Dutch describe Ohosaka as a more attractive resort even than Yedo. 
While this latter city may be regarded as the London of Japan, Ohosaka seems 
to be its Paris. Here are the most oelebrated theatres, the most sumptuous tea- 
houses, the niost extensive pleasure-gardens. It is the abode of luxury and 
wealth, the favourite resort of fashionable Japanese, who come here to spend 
their time in gaiety and pleasure. Ohosaka is one of the five Imperial cities, and 
contains a vast population. [It is situated on the left bank of the Jedogawa, a 
stream which rises in the Lake of (ity, situated a day and a-half’s journey in 
the interior. It is navigable for boats of large tonnage as far as Miaco, and is 
spanned by numerous handsome bridges. 
The port of Hiago and the city of Osaca will not be opened to Europeans until 
the 1st of January, 1863. The foreign residents will then be allowed to explore 
the country in any direction, for a distance of twenty-five miles, except towards 
Miaco, or, as it is more properly called, Kioto. They will not be allowed to 
approach nearer than twenty-five miles to this far famed city, 
As the Dutch have constantly been in the habit of passing through Kioto, it is 
probable that before very long this restriction will be removed, and Europeans will 
be permitted to visit, what is, without question, the most interesting spot in the 
Empire. If Yedo is the London, and Othosaka the Paris, Kioto is certainly the 
Rome of Japan. Itis here that the spiritual Emperor resides, and that enormous 
ecclesiastical Court by which he is surrounded, and which is called the Dairie, 
is permanently fixed. It is here that the celebrated tomb of the Great. Sayco 
Sena, the most famous of Japanese temporal Emperors is situated ; and here are 
