JAPAN. 
145 
which afford splendid views of the neighbouring bays, islands, and promontories—perhaps 
one of the fairest scenes in a land eminently rich in natural beauties. On a hill which 
overlooks the extensive range of dockyard buildings, stands a villa which was pointed out to 
us as the occasional residence of the Mikado. His Imperial Majesty is said to take a strong 
interest in the progress of the works of which the future navy of Japan is to be the result. 
As soon as our good ship lay high and dry in the dock, handed over to an army of tars and 
workmen, we scattered in all directions, each bent on his own purpose—some to botanise, 
some in search of game, others to make observations, or to sketch, or simply to enjoy the 
luxury of treading the “ sure and firm-set earth.” One of the first visits paid by some of us 
was to the workshops in the dockyard. Here we found steam-hammers, boring and planing 
machines—in fact, all the most recent improvements in the manufacture of iron, managed by 
Japanese artisans. The foremen and superintendents were chiefly Frenchmen, for as yet the 
Japanese Government is obliged to entrust the direction of the naval, military, and other 
departments to foreigners, principally natives of either France or England. In a shed in the 
dockyard we saw the first steam-engine built by Japanese workmen, and intended for a 
man-of-war in process of construction in the same establishment—truly an astonishing 
evidence of progress in a country whose condition not many years ago very much resembled 
that of Europe in the Middle Ages. 
It was on a beautiful spring morning, April 29th, that a number of us started on an 
excursion to Kamakura, many centuries ago the capital of Japan, but now reduced to the 
dimensions of a village. The pinnace landed us at Kanasawa, situated in one of the numerous 
bays which indent the western shore of the Bay of Yeddo. While waiting at the tea-house 
for porters to carry our provisions, the hostess prepared tea, which was handed round by 
a little bright-eyed moosmie (girl), all smiles and sunshine. The traveller in the less 
frequented parts of Japan is still obliged to take his provisions with him, as at the tea¬ 
houses— i w€ ' t Japanese inns—excepting a number of mysterious dishes not attractive to a 
European palate, little else is to be had but tea, eggs, fish, rice, cakes, and sake. The latter, 
the Japanese substitute for wine, is a mild, bitter-sweet, and almost colourless liquid, 
prepared from rice. The road from Kanasawa winds through well-cultivated fields, dotted 
with tidy cottages and farm-houses ; at times skirting the base of some rocky bluff crowned 
with a mass of flowers and fresh green leaves, or following the course of a streamlet, or 
passing under the shadow of the dark pines. 
“ And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; 
And here were forests ancient as the hills, 
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.” 
The path crosses the range of hills which divides the Bay of Kamakura from that of Yeddo, 
and, as seems to be the case with most of the ancient highways of Japan, the natural beauty 
of the scenery is rendered doubly attractive by the quaint-looking temples and monuments 
which meet the eye at every turn. Considering the novelty of our surroundings, the bright 
