274 
■\VE PREPARE TO VISIT A SEA-GOd’S TEMPLE. 
seemed similar. As a matter of course they were even 
more wild, for they liad seen less of foreigners; and, if 
possible, the two-sworded gentlemen evinced a stronger 
disposition to follow our tracks, hut one or two properly- 
applied kicks soon cured them of that weakness. 
We found several objects of interest around the shores 
of this magnificent -bay, the most prominent of which 
was a marine cave of vast dimensions chambered out of 
the rocky breast of the towering and surf-worn promon- 
tory of Ila-ko-da-di by some past convulsion of nature, 
and now dedicated by the Japanese fishermeti to their 
sea-god, whose aid they there invoke to calm the raging 
of the sea or to bless their coast with endless shoals of 
salmon. The very existence of this half-submarine, half- 
subterranean place of worship would probably have 
never been known to us had our ship been any thing but 
a surveying-vessel; but the nature of the service required 
at our hands took us everywhere, and, if the “old John” 
couldn’t go herself, she sent one or more ot her six boats 
to act for her. 
It was in this way that the archlike entrance to the 
cave was discovered, — one of our boats, while engaged in 
the survey of the harbour, having entered just far enough 
to determine that it was a cave, and one, too, of no incon- 
siderable extent. As soon, therefore, as tlie survey was 
completed, an exploring-party was organized to enter and 
examine it thoroughly, and to that end quite extensive 
preparations \vere necessary. 
It was reported as being horribly dark, even at the 
mouth, could only be entered in a boat, and that the roar- 
ing of a heavy surf or waterfall had been heard from the 
