SB TO UCHI. 
157 
proved almost as stormy as the cruise outward. We were able, however, on the 4th, to 
.obtain a sounding- in 2675 fathoms, about sixty miles to the southward of Cape Idsumosaki, 
and to make some observations on the temperature of the Kuro-Siwo Current. This great 
current of warm water is the equivalent in the North Pacific Ocean of that warm current in 
the North Atlantic well known as the Gulf Stream; and as the latter flows in a north¬ 
easterly direction, and at some distance from the coast of the United States, so does the 
Kuro-Siwo flow in the same direction, and at some distance from the south-east coast of 
Japan. Its temperature on the 4th of June was also the same as that which we had observed 
in the Gulf Stream on the 1st of May, 1873—namely, 23°_9 C. The temperature of the water 
inside the current and in the bays and gulfs of the island of Nipon was, during our visit, 
as much as 8° or io° below that of the Kuro-Siwo—a difference probably due to the existence 
of a cold counter-current pressing up against the coast of Japan, just as the Labrador 
Current flows between the Gulf Stream and the coast of the United States. 
Upon our return to Yokohama on the 6th of June, His Majesty the Mikado announced, 
through Sir Harry S. Parkes, the British Minister, his pleasure to receive a certain number 
of the officers attached to the Expedition. Accordingly, on the 10th, Captain F. T. Thomson, 
Commander S. J. L. P. Maclean, Lieutenant George B. Bethell, Sub-Lieutenant Lord George 
Campbell, Professor C. Wyville Thomson, and the writer, waited upon His Excellency the 
British Minister at his residence in Yeddo, and thence proceeded to -the Imperial Palace. 
Escorted by mounted guards attached to the Embassy, we drove through the wide streets of 
Yeddo—or Tokio, as it is now called—till we reached the palace; not the old palace in 
the citadel which had been recently injured by fire, but one situated outside the ramparts. 
Here we were introduced by Sir Harry Parkes to the Mikado’s Ministers, who were attired in 
uniforms. The room in which they received us was simply but elegantly furnished in 
European style, Japanese art being represented by a large screen in white and gold. Sir 
Harry Parkes having been received in audience by His Majesty, our turn came to be 
presented. We traversed several rooms and an open gallery commanding a view of the 
palace grounds, and were finally conducted to the reception room—an oblong space, carpeted 
but without furniture, and enclosed by screens or partitions such as are used in Japan to 
divide one room from another. 
On entering, we saw His Majesty standing at the upper end of the apartment. He 
was uncovered, and wore a uniform of Western fashion richly adorned with gold lace. Sir 
Harry Parkes, through an interpreter, explained to the Mikado the object of the “Challenger” 
Expedition, and then we were severally introduced by the British Minister. The Mikado, in 
his reply, graciously alluded to the interest he felt in the success of our work, and concluded 
by wishing us a safe return home. 
Not many years ago, the person of the Mikado, whom custom and tradition had 
surrounded with almost divine attributes, was considered too sacred to be looked on by mortal 
eyes, even those of his own subjects ; and the remembrance of this fact made the occasion 
of our presentation doubly interesting. The extraordinary changes, social as well as political, 
