CHAP. XVI,] 
ARRIVAL AT YOKOHAMA. 
297 
steamship sailings with San Francisco on the one hand, and 
Hong Kong, India, &c., on the other, and finally by telegraph 
not only with the principal cities of Japan but also with all the 
lands that have got entangled in the threads of the world’s 
telegraph net. 
The situation of the town on the western shore of the Yedo 
or Tokio Bay, which is perhaps rather large for a haven, is not 
particularly fine. But on sailing in we see in the west, if the 
weather be fine, Fusiyama’s snow-clad, incomparably beautiful 
volcanic cone raise itself from a cultivated forest-clad region. 
When one has seen it, he is no longer astonished that the Japanese 
reproduce with such affection on their varnished wares, porcelain, 
cloth, paper, sword-ornaments, &c., the form of their highest, 
stateliest, and also grimmest mountain. For the number of the 
men who have perished by its eruptions is reckoned by hundreds 
of thousands, and if tradition speaks truth the whole mountain 
in a far distant antiquity was formed in a single night. Before 
we enter Yedo Bay we pass a volcano, active during last year, 
situated on the volcanic island Oshima, known in Japanese 
history as the place of exile of several of the heroes in the many 
internal struggles of the country. 
While we sailed, or more correctly, steamed—for we had still 
sufficient coal remaining to permit the engine to be used—up 
the Bay of Yedo, the coasts were for the most part concealed 
with mist, so that the summit of Fusiyama and the contours of 
the shore only now and then gleamed forth from the fog and 
cloud. The wind besides was against us, on which account it was 
9.30 in the evening of the 2nd September before we could 
anchor in the haven that had been longed-for for such a length 
of time. I immediately hastened on land, along with Captain 
Palander, in order to send home a telegram across Siberia 
about the fortunate issue of the voyage vof the Vega. At 
the telegraph station I was informed that the Siberian line was 
interrupted by inundations for a space of 600 versts, and that 
