314 
PURCHASE OF SPECIMENS. 
Anchored off the entrance of the Kino channel, 
I was very fortunate in obtaining specimens. Time 
was when a European naturalist, visiting the shores 
of the great island named Zij)angu, as Marco Polo 
calls it, would have had but a sorry chance of learn- 
ing anything about the zoology of Japan ; but now, 
with the imperial flag (a red ball on a white ground) 
at the fore, and Araki, an oflicer of high rank, on 
intimate and famihar terms with all on board, we 
found the people very friendly in their intercourse. 
Amused and puzzled at my passion for skulls, Araki 
gave orders to the hunters to provide specimens for 
me, and in a day or two an antlered deer was 
brought alongside, and soon became mine by right 
of purchase. Next followed two flue does, then a 
badger and a tanuki. A flue old yellow-haired sow 
also became my property for a consideration of ten 
“ boos,” but she illustrated the saying about “ a pig 
in a poke,” for though, as she lay on her side on the^ 
quarter-deck, she looked a magnificent specimen, 
alas ! she had been speared through the mouth, and 
her skull Avas found on examination to be shattered. 
