82 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN 



The miners working in ore are paid according to the weight and quality of the 

 ore extracted, receiving one cent for every 10 kans, or 80 lbs. of best rough ore, 

 and one-half a cent for the same quantity of inferior. 



When not working in ore they are paid by the running foot on the gallery 

 and the hardness of the rock, receiving per running shak,' or foot, 60 cents for the 

 hardest rock, and 1 4 for the softest, the average at these mines being 30 cents. One 

 man can advance a gallery one foot, in the hardest rock of these mines, in five days. 



The timbering of the levels costs 10 cents per running foot, the wood growing in 

 the vicinity. 



May 28th, Leaving the mines, we returned to the main road, and crossed the 

 watershed of the peninsula. The rock is concealed, but judging from numerous 

 fragments on the surface the older rocks of the ridge are covered with volcanic 

 conglomerate. 



About twelve miles to the N. N. E. we saw the half ruined cone of the volcano 

 Komangadake, also called the Sawaradake. In the valley lying between us and 

 the peak, lay a picturesque lake surrounded by forests and meadows, and its banks 

 overhung with a rich vegetation. Beyond lay the beautiful Volcano bay. Descend- 

 ing from the ridge we passed the lake, and stopped for the night at the small 

 village of Skunope. 



May 29th. Leaving Skunope we started to ascend the volcano. As our Avay lay 

 through the forest, coolies were sent ahead to .clear a path in the underbru-sh. For 

 several miles we were in a dense wood much like a New England forest ; the prevailing 

 trees being grand specimens of magnolia, beech, birch, maple, and oak, with immense 

 vines of grape, ivy, etc., clinging to their trunks and hanging from the boughs. 



We came out of the forest upon the gentle foot-slope of the mountain, here 

 covered with a deposit of pumice that extended from where we stood to the sum- 

 mit, in the shape of a stream several hundred yards broad. Leaving the horses, 

 and keeping on the pumice, we soon reached the steeper ascent. The sides of the 

 volcano have been covered with a growth of large trees, where now only dead, 

 white trunks are left, some standing, but the greater number fallen. Many of these 

 lay in our path, while some, standing in their original positions, were surrounded 

 by the subaerial deposit of pumice which reached several feet above the roots. 



We reached the edge of the crater at a point below the highest peak. 



1 was told that the Sawaradake was formerly a single cone, but that seven or 

 eight years before our visit this fell in, the occurrence being accompanied or pre- 

 ceded by a severe earthquake, and an eruption of hot water and pumice, the sand 

 of which was carried by the winds as far as the Kurile Islands. 



The crater is now several hundred feet deep, with steep walls, and entirely open 

 toward the sea on the east. The bottom is formed by a convex mass of pumice 

 which extends vrith an unbroken slope through the opening to the sea-shore. 



Great cracks traverse this plain in every direction, distinguishable, from our posi- 

 tion on the summit, by their raised, yellow edges, forming long ridges, as though 

 gigantic moles had undermined the plain, and b'y rows of steam jets 



' The shak is about one-fifteenth of an inch shorter than our foot. 



