336 
A LARGE CRATER. 
By Phof. JOHN MILNE, F.G.S. r Japan. 
T HE crater I wish to describe is called Asosan. It is 
situated in Kiushiu, the southernmost large island of the 
Japanese empire. The width of this crater is about fifteen 
miles, and in the bottom of it there are living, and living for 
aught I know in peace and plenty, about 20,000 people. 
The way in which I came to find this crater was this : for 
• the last four years I have been spending my spare time in 
travelling about Japan geologizing and visiting volcanoes. At 
the end of the summer of 1878, the only island of Japan which 
remained for me to see was Kiushiu, and a part of this I made 
up my mind to travel over during the coming Christmas 
holidays. After making application for extra leave, which 
was very kindly granted to me, I left Yokohama en route for 
Nagasaki, which for foreigners is the chief town in Kiushiu, 
on the afternoon of the 17th of December ; the greater portion 
of this journey, which can all of it be performed in a comfort- 
able steamer, is down what is called the Inland Sea. This 
journey is a trip which is made by everyone who visits Japan, 
and rather than being a journey down a sea, as its name 
implies, it is more like a journey along a river or a lake, 
which in places is so thickly studded with little islands, that 
at every moment they seem to come within a stone’s throw. 
After a day’s rest at Nagasaki, where I was joined by Mr. A. 
Wooley of the British Legation, I took a small steamer bound 
from Kumamoto to the capital of Hizen, one of the chief seats 
of the fighting during the last rebellion. At this point I may 
say that the luxuries of travelling were ended ; and not know- 
ing that there was anything particularly interesting before 
me, it was not with feelings of pleasure that I left the steamer 
and took to muddy roads and Japanese hotels. Foreigners 
who only come to J apan for a week and travel along a well- 
frequented road, or in the neighbourhood of an open port 
where the habits of the strangers from afar are more or less 
