54 THE INLAND SEA. REVISITED. 



When at anchor once between two of these islands, 

 Syako and Hiro Shima, a severe typhoon passed along 

 the Sikok coast. The weather at the time, where the 

 ship lay, was merely very heavy and overcast, wind 

 strong, with sharp gusts, and torrents of rain. The 

 clouds appeared so low that they struck and broke on the 

 island's summit, which was only 650 feet high. Next 

 morning on landing I found a slice of the hill-side had 

 been swept away in a very strange manner. A cut eight 

 feet deep and twelve wide was gone ; trees were torn up 

 and swept to the foot of the hill ; big boulders, washed 

 clean, had also been brought down ; and on each side 

 the height of the water — for this had been done by 

 water — was distinctly marked. I followed the cleft up 

 the hill, and came to its commencement, about 200 feet 

 below the summit ridge. Here the appearance was as 

 if the ground had been scooped out by a volume of 

 water from above. At any rate this occurred on the 

 night of the typhoon, and from the bursting of no 

 spring. In other parts of Japan I have also seen 

 similar marks on the hiU-sides. 



The Bingo Nada, an open piece of water, separates 

 the thick cluster of islands I am speaking of from the 

 Kurusima Straits. These straits are formed by another 

 mass of islands reaching across the Inland Sea, with 



