150 
FROM H0NG-K0NG TO YOKOHAMA. 
fantastically-shaped rocks, some of them crowned with foliage, extended from the village 
into the harbour, forming a natural breakwater, 
“ Which to the maine doth his broad backe oppose, 
Whereon the roaring billow cleaues and brakes. 
On landing, we walked along the shore to the walled town of Kusimoto, which, with its 
tidy houses and clean streets, is a fair sample of a quiet provincial town. How we poor 
storm-tossed sailors envied the people whose privilege it was to pass their peaceful lives in 
this charming and scarcely known corner of the world ! Our way back led us through 
cultivated fields and through a glen along the banks of a stream. The hillsides were 
glorying in the fresh verdure of spring, adorned with large blue violets and rosy bunches 
of azaleas. In one part of the glen we had to be carried over the river on the shoulders 
of men ; at another place we performed a feat akin to rope-dancing, by crossing one of those 
airy bridges frequently met with in the mountain districts, consisting of a few pieces of 
timber loosely placed side by side, and some fifteen feet above the water. When, after 
ascending a steep rocky path, we reached the summit- of the glen, the whole harbour and 
island of Oosima, the Pisayama Rocks, and the village of Hasingui burst upon our view. 
KOBE. 
Early on the 15th we left this pleasant spot, and, putting on full steam, we soon 
doubled the cape which had baffled us the day before. Proceeding up the wide inlet 
between Nipon and Sikok, we passed about noon through Isumi Strait and entered the 
Gulf of Oosaka, where, before sunset, we anchored off the towns Kobe and Hiogo. The 
former is the chosen residence of Europeans, whose substantial dwellings, including the house 
of the British Consul, adorn the esplanade fronting the sea. The latter is an old Japanese 
seaport, and is only separated from Kobe by the bridge which spans the railway to Oosaka. 
This bridge is always occupied by a crowd of peasants and pilgrims, to whom the sight of 
the fire-horse, with its dragon-like tail of railway carriages, is as yet one of the wonders of 
the day. Oosaka is a large commercial city — the Birmingham of Japan — and is situated 
in the opposite corner of the gulf. 
A walk through the native quarter of Kobe, or through the busy streets of Hiogo, 
affords the same source of entertainment and of constant surprises as at Yokohama or Yeddo. 
Everything which meets the eye of the traveller—the faces and dress of the people, the 
style of the houses, the thousand objects exhibited for sale—are all, even in the minutest 
detail, so different from what he has seen elsewhere, that he is often tempted to ask himself 
whether he is not walking in a dream. Apparently a large proportion of the people can 
feed on “ the dainties that are bred in a book.” At all events, there is always a crowd 
gathered in front of the book-shops, eagerly perusing the illustrated pages of some popular 
tale or romance, or looking at the caricatures suspended outside. In some of the latter, the 
European in his strange garb is beginning to make an appearance, to the intense amusement 
