The Ascent of Asama-Yama. 191 



After the conquest of "Hard Scramble" comes the 

 long steady pull of 2,700 feet to the summit. Here the 

 path is very even, and in two hours one can without 

 difficulty accomplish the rest of the distance. 



We reached the top just before sunrise. The first pink 

 streaks of promise were already appearing along the 

 eastern horizon. We seated ourselves in a sheltered 

 place, in an opening of a cleft in the rock, on the north- 

 west side of the crater, to watch the coming of the dawn. 

 In spite of the fire beneath us, the air was bitterly cold. 

 We wrapped ourselves in the heavy coats and rugs which 

 we had brought with us. Then the miracle began. The 

 soft flush grew deeper and spread; the gray atmosphere 

 became amber, and then pink, and then saffron; the 

 mountain-peaks of the whole empire were awaking to 

 a new day of light and majesty. Northwards lay the 

 range of Shiranesan, which infolded between two peaks 

 the clear, deep waters of Lake Haruna. To the north- 

 west we could see Akagisan, which held within her bosom 

 the rich treasures of copper and all the raw material for 

 Japan's arts of bronze. Over the shoulder of Akagisan 

 rose the peak of Nantaisan, standing guard over the 

 tombs of the Shoguns in Nikko. Directly before us 

 were the rocks of ]\Iyogisan, and beyond Myogisan the 

 ripening grain in the plain of Tokyo, and beyond the 

 plain of Tokyo the thousand leagues of tossing water of 

 the Pacific. 



At first we could not find Fuji. But then the clouds 

 in the south parted, and Fuji, peerless Fuji, his white 

 head swathed in golden light and his sides enveloped in 

 soft cloud, lifted himself to our vision above the one 

 hundred and twenty miles of hill and plain that inter- 

 vened. 



No one who has not beheld the sight can imagine the 

 beauty of clouds seen from above under the light of 

 sunrise. They were white, — whiter than anything else 

 in the world, — giving us our best conception of the purity 

 of the Creator. Then the light came upon them from 



