THE GLORY OF THE AUTUMN 111 



cellaneous mixed woods, on the contrary, yellow pre- 

 vails among trees. 



In Japan, where an intense love of nature is 

 innate among all classes, there prevails a custom 

 which might well be adopted here. The beauty spots 

 in that land are many and are justly celebrated in 

 poetry and song: august Fuji with its perfect cone 

 and snowy mantle; the Pineclad islets of Matsushima; 

 the Inland Sea with its hundreds of islands clad with 

 verdure to the water's edge; the Nikko region with its 

 mountains and lakes, its waterfalls and woods; and 

 hundreds of other places more or less famous, includ- 

 ing many noted for their Maples. In October, when 

 the woods assume their autumn splendor, children 

 from primary and secondary schools, high schools and 

 colleges, with their teachers and professors, make ex- 

 cursions of three or four days' duration to noted 

 places and revel in the feast of color. The railways 

 issue cheap tickets and from all the large towns and 

 cities children, youths, and maidens journey to the 

 mountain woods. Last autumn in the Nikko region 

 I saw thousands of scholars — boys and girls varying 

 from eight to twenty years of age (and a happy, 

 orderly throng they were) — enjoying to the full the 

 scenery, breathing in the freshest mountain air, and 

 building up healthy minds and bodies. Their joy- 



