Chapter XV
The position of Behring Island--Its inhabitants--The discovery of the island by Behring--Behring's death--Steller--The former and present Fauna on the island: foxes, sea-otters, sea-cows, sea-lions, and sea-bears--Collection of bones of the Rhytina --Visit to a "rookery"--Toporkoff Island--Alexander Dubovski --Voyage to Yokohama--Lightning-stroke.
Behring Island is situated between 54 deg. 40' and 55 deg. 25' N.L. and 165 deg. 40' and 166 deg. 40' E.L. from Greenwich. It is the westernmost and nearest Kamchatka of the islands in the long chain formed by volcanic action, which bounds the Behring Sea on the south between 51 deg. and 56 deg. N.L. Together with the neighbouring Copper Island and some small islands and rocks lying round about, it forms a peculiar group of islands separated from the Aleutian Islands proper, named, after the rank of the great seafarer who perished here, Commander's or Commandirski Islands. They belong not to America but to Asia, and are Russian territory. Notwithstanding this the American Alaska Company has acquired the right of hunting there,[356] and maintains on the main islands two not inconsiderable commercial stations, which supply the inhabitants, several hundreds in number, with provisions and manufactured goods, the company buying from them instead furs, principally the skin of an eared seal (the sea-cat or sea-bear), of which from 20,000 to 50,000[357] are killed yearly in the region. Some Russian authorities are also settled on the island to guard the rights of the Russian state and maintain order. Half a dozen serviceable wooden houses have been built here as dwellings for the officials of the Russian Government and the American Company, for storehouses, shops, &c. The natives live partly in very roomy and in the inside not uncomfortable turf houses, partly in small wooden houses which the company endeavours gradually to substitute for the former, by yearly ordering some wooden buildings and presenting them to the most deserving of the population. Every family has its own house. There is also a Greek-Catholic church and a spacious schoolhouse. The latter is intended for Aleutian children. The school was unfortunately closed at the time of our visit, but, to judge by the writing books which lay about in the schoolroom, the education here is not to be despised. The specimens of writing at least were distinguished by their cleanness, and by an even and beautiful style. At "the colony" the houses were collected at one place into a village, situated near the sea-shore at a suitable distance from the fishing ground in a valley overgrown in summer by a rich vegetation, but treeless and surrounded by treeless rounded heights. From the sea this village has the look of a northern fishing station. There are besides some scattered houses here and there on other parts of the island, for instance on its north-eastern side, where the potato is said to be cultivated on a small scale, and at the fishing place on the north side where there are two large sheds for skins and a number of very small earth-holes used only during the slaughter season.
Behring Island, with regard both to geography and natural history, is one of the most remarkable islands in the north part of the Pacific. It was here that Behring after his last unfortunate voyage in the sea which now bears his name, finished his long course as an explorer. He was however survived by many of his followers, among them by the physician and naturalist Steller, to whom we owe a masterpiece seldom surpassed--a sketch of the natural conditions and animal life on the island, never before visited by man, where he involuntarily passed the time from the middle of November 1741, to the end of August 1742.[358]
It was the desire to procure for our museums the skins or skeletons of the many remarkable mammalia occurring here, also to compare the present state of the island which for nearly a century and a half has been exposed to the unsparing thirst of man for sport and plunder, with Steller's spirited and picturesque description, which led me to include a visit to the island in the plan of the expedition. The accounts I got at Behring Island from the American newspapers of the anxiety which our wintering had caused in Europe led me indeed to make our stay there shorter than I at first intended. Our harvest of collections and observations was at all events extraordinarily abundant. But before I proceed to give an account of our own stay on the island, I must devote a few words to its discovery and the first wintering there, which has a quite special interest from the island having never before been trodden by the foot of man. The abundant animal life, then found there, gives us therefore one of the exceedingly few representations we possess of the animal world as it was before man, the lord of the creation, appeared.
After Behring's vessel had drifted about a considerable time at random in the Behring Sea, in consequence of the severe scurvy-epidemic, which had spread to nearly all the men on board, without any dead reckoning being kept, and finally without sail or helmsman, literally at the mercy of wind and waves, those on board on the 15th/4th November, 1741, sighted land, off whose coast the vessel was anchored the following day at 5 o'clock P.M. An hour after the cable gave way, and an enormous sea threw the vessel towards the shore-cliffs. All appeared to be already lost. But the vessel, instead of being driven ashore by new waves, came unexpectedly into a basin 4-1/2 fathoms deep surrounded by rocks and with quite still water, being connected with the sea only by a single narrow opening. If the unmanageable vessel had not drifted just to that place it would certainly have gone to pieces, and all on board would have perished.
It was only with great difficulty that the sick crew could put out a boat in which Lieut. Waxel and Steller landed. They found the land uninhabited, devoid of wood, and uninviting. But a rivulet with fresh clear water purled yet unfrozen down the mountain sides, and in the sand hills along the coast were found some deep pits, which when enlarged and covered with sails could be used as dwellings. The men who could still stand on their legs all joined in this work. On the 19th/8th November the sick could be removed to land, but, as often happens, many died when they were brought out of the cabin into the fresh air, others while they were being carried from the vessel or immediately after they came to land. All in whom the scurvy had taken the upper hand to that extent that they were already lying in bed on board the vessel, died. The survivors had scarcely time or strength to bury the dead, and found it difficult to protect the corpses from the hungry foxes that swarmed on the island and had not yet learned to be afraid of man. On the 20th/9th Behring was carried on land; he was already much reduced and dejected, and could not be induced to take exercise. He died on the 19th/8th December.
VITUS BEHRING was a Dane by birth, and when a young man had already made voyages to the East and West Indies. In 1707 he was received into the Russian navy as officer, and as such took part in all the warlike enterprises of that fleet against Sweden. He was in a way buried alive on the island that now bears his name, for at last he did not permit his men to remove the sand that lolled down upon him from the walls of the sand pit in which he rested. For he thought that the sand warmed his chilled body. Before the corpse could be properly buried it had therefore to be dug out of its bed, a circumstance which appears to have produced a disagreeable impression on the survivors. The two Lieutenants, Waxel and Chitrov, had kept themselves in pretty good health at sea, but now fell seriously ill, though they recovered. Only the physician of the expedition, Georg Wilhelm Steller, was all the time in good health, and that a single man of the whole crew escaped with his life was clearly clue to the skill of this gifted man, to his invincible energy and his cheerful and sanguine disposition. These qualities were also abundantly tested during the wintering. On the night before the 10th December/29th November, the vessel, on which no watch was kept, because all the men were required on land to care for the sick, was cast ashore by a violent E.S.E. storm. So great a quantity of provisions was thus lost, that the remaining stock was not sufficient by itself to yield enough food for all the men during a whole winter. Men were therefore sent out in all directions to inquire into the state of the land. They returned with the information that the vessel had stranded, not, as was hoped at first, on the mainland but on an uninhabited, woodless island. It was thus clear to the shipwrecked men that in order to be saved they could rely only on their judgment and strength. At the beginning they found that if any provisions were to be reserved for the voyage home, it was necessary that they should support themselves during winter to a considerable extent by hunting. They did not like to use the flesh of the fox for food, and at first kept to that of the sea-otter. This animal at present is very scarce on Behring Island, but at that time the shore was covered with whole herds of it. They had no fear of man, came from curiosity straight to the fires, and did not run away when any one approached. A dear-bought experience, however, soon taught them caution; at all events, from 800 to 900 head were taken, a splendid catch when we consider that the skin of this animal at the Chinese frontier fetched from 80 to 100 roubles each. Besides, in the beginning of winter two whales stranded on the island. The shipwrecked men considered these then provision depots, and appear to have preferred whale blubber to the flesh of the sea-otter, which had an unpleasant taste and was tough as leather.[359]
In spring the sea-otters disappeared, but now there came to the island in their stead other animals in large herds, viz sea-bears, seals, and sea-lions. The flesh of the young sea-lion was considered a great delicacy.[360] When the sea-otters became scarcer and more shy and difficult to catch, the shipwrecked men found means also to kill sea-cows, whose flesh Steller considered equal to beef. Several barrels of their flesh were even salted to serve as provisions during the return journey. As the land became clear of snow in the middle of April, Waxel called together the forty-five men who survived to a consultation regarding the steps that ought to be taken in order to reach the mainland. Among many different proposals, that was adopted of building a new vessel with the materials supplied by the stranded one. The three ship-carpenters who had been on board were dead. But fortunately there was among the survivors a Cossack, SAVA STARODUBZOV, who had taken part as a workman in shipbuilding at Okotsk, and now undertook to manage the building of the new vessel. With necessity for a teacher he also succeeded in executing his commission, so that a new St. Peter was launched on the 21st/10th August, 1742. The vessel was forty feet long, thirteen feet beam, and six and a half feet deep, and sailed as well as if built by an experienced master of his craft, but on the other hand leaked seriously in a high sea. The return voyage at all events passed successfully. On the 5th September/25th August Kamchatka was sighted, and two days after the St. Peter anchored at Petropaulovsk, where the shipwrecked men found a storehouse with an abundant stock of provisions according to their ideas, which probably were not pitched very high. Next year they sailed on with their Behring-Island-built vessel to Okotsk. On then arrival there, of the seventy-six persons who originally took part in the expedition, thirty-two were dead. At Kamchatka they had all been considered dead, and the effects they left behind them had been scattered and divided. Steller voluntarily remained some time longer in Kamchatka in order to carry on his researches in natural history. Unfortunately he drew upon himself the ill-will of the authorities, in consequence of the free way in which he criticised their abuses. This led to a trial at the court at Irkutsk. He was, indeed, found innocent, and obtained permission to travel home, but at Zolikamsk he was overtaken by an express with orders to bring him back to Irkutsk. On the way thither he met another express with renewed permission to travel to Europe. But the powers of the strong and formerly healthy man were exhausted by his hunting backwards and forwards across the immeasurable deserts of Siberia. He died soon after, on the 23rd/12th November, 1746, at Tjumen, only thirty-seven years of age, of a fever by which he was attacked during the journey.[361]
The immense quantity of valuable furs brought home by the survivors of Behring's so unfortunate third voyage affected the fur-dealers, Cossacks, and hunters of Siberia much in the same way as the rumour about Eldorado or about the riches of the Casic Dobaybe did the Spanish discoverers of middle and southern America. Numerous expeditions were fitted out to the new land rich in furs, where extensive territories previously unknown were made tributary to the Czar of Russia. Most of these expeditions landed on Behring Island during the voyage out and home, and in a short time wrought a complete change in the fauna of the island. Thanks to Steller's spirited sketch of the animal life he observed there, we have also an opportunity of forming an idea of the alteration in the fauna which man brings about in a land in which he settles.
Arctic foxes were found in incredible numbers on the island during the wintering of the Behring expedition. They not only ate up everything that was at all eatable that was left in the open air, but forced their way as well by day as by night into the houses and carried off all that they could, even such things as were of no use whatever to them, as knives, sticks, sacks, shoes and stockings. Even if anything had been never so well buried and loaded with stones, they not only found the place but even pushed away the stones with their shoulders like men. Though they could not eat what they found, they carried it off and concealed it under stones. In such a case some foxes stood on guard, and if a man approached all assisted in speedily concealing the stolen article in the sand so that no trace of it was left. When any of the men slept out of doors at night the foxes carried off their caps and gloves, and made their way under the covering. They nosed the noses of the sleepers to find out whether they were dead or living, and attempted to nibble at any who held their breath. As the female sea-lions and sea-bears often suffocate their young during sleep, the foxes every morning made an inspection of the place where these animals lie down in immense herds, and if they found a dead young one they immediately helped each other, like good scavengers, to carry away the carcase. When men were employed out of doors they had to drive the foxes away with sticks, and they became, in consequence of the slyness and cunning with which they knew how to carry out their thefts and the skill which they showed in combining to gain an end which they could not compass as single animals, actually dangerous to the shipwrecked men, by whom they were therefore heartily hated, pursued, tormented, and killed. Since then thousands and thousands of foxes have been killed on Behring Island by the fur-hunters. Now they are so scarce that during our stay there we did not see one. Those that still survive, besides, as the Europeans settled on the island informed me, do not wear the precious dark blue dress formerly common but the white, which is of little value. On the neighbouring Copper Island, however, there are still dark blue foxes in pretty large numbers.[362]
Nine hundred sea-otters were killed here by Steller and his companions in 1741-42. The following quotation is taken from Steller's description of this animal which is now so shy at the sight of man:--
"With respect to playfulness it surpasses every other animal that lives either in the sea or on the land. When it comes up out of the sea it shakes the water from its fur, and dresses it as a cat its head with its fore-paws, stretches its body, arranges its hair, throws its head this way and that, contemplating itself and its beautiful fur with evident satisfaction. The animal is so much taken up with this dressing of itself, that while thus employed it may easily be approached and killed. If one strikes a sea-otter twenty times across the back, it bears it patiently, but if its large beautiful tail be struck once it turns its head to its pursuer, as if to offer it as a mark for his club in place of the tail. If it eludes an attack it makes the most laughable gestures to the hunter. It looks at him, placing one foot above the head as if to protect it from the sunlight, throws itself on its back, and turning to its enemy as if in scorn scratches itself on the belly and thighs. The male and female are much attached to each other, embrace and kiss each other like men. The female is also very fond of its young. When attacked she never leaves it in the lurch, and when danger is not near she plays with it in a thousand ways, almost like a child-loving mother with her young ones, throws it sometimes up in the air and catches it with her fore-feet like a ball, swims about with it in her bosom, throws it away now and then to let it exercise itself in the art of swimming, but takes it to herself with kisses and caresses when it is tired."
According to recent researches the sea-otter, sea-beaver or Kamchatka-beaver (Enhydris lutris, Lin.) is a species neither of the otter nor the beaver, but belongs to a peculiar genus, allied to a certain extent to the walrus. Even this animal, unsurpassed in the beauty of its skin, has been long since driven away not only from Behring Island but also from most of the hunting-grounds where it was commonly killed by thousands, and if an effective law be not soon put in force to keep the hunting in bounds, and check the war of extermination which greed now carries on against it, no longer with clubs and darts but with powder and breechloaders, the sea-otter will meet the same fate which has already befallen Steller's sea-cow. Of the sea-lion (Eumetopias Stelleri, Lesson), which in Steller's time were found in abundance on the shore cliffs of Behring Island, there are now only single animals there along with the sea-bears (Otaria ursina, Lin.); and finally, the most remarkable of all the old mammalia of Behring Island, the great sea-cow, is completely extinct.
Steller's sea-cow (Rhytina Stelleri, Cuvier) in a way took the place of the cloven-footed animals among the marine mammalia. The sea-cow was of a dark-brown colour, sometimes varied with white spots or streaks. The thick leathery skin was covered with hair which grew together so as to form an exterior skin, which was full of vermin and resembled the bark of an old oak. The full grown animal was from twenty-eight to thirty-five English feet in length and weighed about sixty-seven cwt. The head was small in proportion to the large thick body, the neck short, the body diminishing rapidly behind. The short fore-leg terminated abruptly without fingers or nails, but was overgrown with a number of short thickly placed brush-hairs, the hind-leg was replaced by a tail-fin resembling a whale's. The animal wanted teeth, but was instead provided with two masticating plates, one in the gum the other in the under jaw. The udders of the female, which abounded in milk, were placed between the fore-limbs. The flesh and milk resembled those of horned cattle, indeed in Steller's opinion surpassed them. The sea-cows were almost constantly employed in pasturing on the sea-weed which grew luxuriantly on the coast, moving the head and neck while so doing much in the same way as an ox. While they pastured they showed great voracity, and did not allow themselves to be disturbed in the least by the presence of man. One might even touch them without them being frightened or disturbed. They entertained great attachment to each other, and when one was harpooned the others made incredible attempts to rescue it.
When Steller came to Behring Island, the sea-cows pastured along the shore, collected like cattle into herds. The shipwrecked men, for want of suitable implements, did not hunt them at first. It was only after a thoughtless love of slaughter had driven all other animals suitable for food far from their winter quarters, that they began to devise means to catch the sea-cow also. They endeavoured to harpoon the animal with a strong iron hook made for the purpose, and then drag it to land. The first attempt was made on the 1st June/21st May 1742, but it was unsuccessful. It was not until after many renewed attempts that they at last succeeded in killing and catching a number of animals, and dragging them at high water so near land that they were dry at ebb. They were so heavy that forty men were required to do this, we may conclude from these particulars that the number of sea-cows killed during the first wintering on Behring Island was not very large. For the first one was killed only six weeks before the shipwrecked men left the island, and the hunting thus fell at a time when they could leave the building of the vessel to occupy themselves in that way only in case of necessity. Besides, only two animals were required to yield flesh-food to all the men for the period in question.
It is remarkable that the sea-cow is so mentioned by later travellers only in passing, that this large animal, still hunted by Europeans in the time of Linnaeus, would scarcely have been registered in the system of the naturalist if Steller had not wintered on Behring Island. What Krascheninnikov says of the sea-cow is wholly borrowed from Steller, and in the same way nearly all the statements of later naturalists as to its occurrence and mode of life. That this is actually the case is shown by the following abstract, complete as far as I know, of what is said of the sea-cow in the only original account of the first hunting voyages of the Russians to the Aleutian Islands, which was published at Hamburg and Leipzig in 1776 with the title, Neue, Nachrichten von denen neuentdeckten Insuln in der See zwischen Asien und Amerika, aus mitgetheilten Urkunden und Auszuegen verfasset von J.L.S.** (Scherer).[363] In this book the sea-cow is mentioned at the following places:--
"Ivan Krassilnikoff's vessel started first in 1754 and arrived on the 8th October at Behring Island, where all the vessels fitted out for hunting the sea-otter on the remote islands are wont to pass the winter, in order to provide themselves with a sufficient stock of the flesh of the sea-cow" (loc. cit. p. 38).
"The autumn storms, or rather the wish to take on board a stock of provisions, compelled them (a number of hunters sent out by the merchant Tolstyk under command of the Cossack Obeuchov) to touch at Commander's Island (Behring Island) where, during the winter up to the 24th/13th June, 1757, they obtained nothing else than sea-cows, sea-lions, and large seals. They found no sea-otters this year." (ibid p. 40).
"They (a Russian hunting vessel under Studenzov in 1758) landed on Behring Island to kill sea-cows, as all vessels are accustomed to do." (ibid p. 45).
"After Korovin in 1762 (on Behring Island) had provided himself with a sufficient stock of the flesh and hides of the sea-cow for his boats.... he sailed on" (ibid p. 82).
In 1772 DMITRI BRAGIN wintered on Behring Island during a hunting voyage. In a journal kept at the request of Pallas, the large marine animals occurring on the island are enumerated, but not a word is said about the sea-cow (PALLAS, Neue nordische Beytraege, ii. p. 310).
SCHELECHOV passed the winter 1783-84 on Behring Island, but during the whole time he only succeeded in killing some white foxes, and in the narrative of the voyage there is not a word about the sea-cow (GRIGORI SCHELECHOV russischen Kaufmanns erste und zweite Reise, &c., St. Petersburg, 1793).
Some further accounts of the sea-cow have been obtained through the mining engineer PET. JAKOVLEV, who visited Commander's Islands in 1755 in order to investigate the occurrence of copper on Copper Island. In the account of this voyage which he gave to Pallas there is not indeed one word about the sea-cow, but in 1867 PEKARSKI published in the Memoirs of the Petersburg Academy some extracts from Jakovlev's journal, from which it appears that the sea-cow already in his time was driven away from Copper Island. Jakovlev on this account on the 27th November, 1755, laid a petition before the authorities on Kamchatka, for having the hunting of the sea-cow placed under restraint of law and the extermination of the animal thus prevented, a thoughtful act honourable to its author, which certainly ought to serve as a pattern in our times (J. FR. BRANDT, Symbolae Sirenologicae, Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, t. xii. No. 1, 1861-68, p. 295).
In his account of Behring's voyage (1785-94) published in 1802, Sauer says, p. 181: "Sea-cows were very common on Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands,[364] when they were first discovered, but the last was killed on Behring Island in 1768, and none has been seen since then."
On the ground of the writings of which I have given an account above, and of various pieces of information collected during this century from the Russian authorities in the region, by the skilful conservator WOSNESSENSKI, the academicians von Baer and Brandt[365] came to the conclusion that the sea-cow had scarcely been seen by Europeans before the 19th/8th November, 1741, when Steller, the day after his landing on Behring Island for the first time saw some strange animals pasturing with their heads under water on the shores of the island; and that the animal twenty-seven years afterwards, or in 1768, was completely exterminated The latter statement however is undoubtedly incorrect; for, in the course of the many inquiries I made of the natives, I obtained distinct information that living sea-cows had been seen much later. A creole (that is, the offspring of a Russian and an Aleutian), who was sixty-seven years of age, of intelligent appearance and in the full possession of his mental faculties, stated "that his father died in 1847 at the age of eighty-eight. He had come from Volhynia, his native place, to Behring Island at the age of eighteen, accordingly in 1777. The two or three first years of his stay there, i.e. till 1779 or 1780, sea-cows were still being killed as they pastured on sea-weed. The heart only was eaten, and the hide used for baydars.[366] In consequence of its thickness the hide was split in two, and the two pieces thus obtained had gone to make a baydar twenty feet long, seven and a half feet broad, and three feet deep. After that time no sea-cows had been killed."
There is evidence, however, that a sea-cow had been seen at the island still later. Two creoles, Feodor Mertchenin and Stepnoff, stated, that about twenty-five years ago at Tolstoj-mys, on the east side of the island, they had seen an animal unknown to them which was very thick before, but grew smaller behind, had small fore-feet, and appeared with a length of about fifteen feet above water, now raising itself up, now lowering itself. The animal "blew," not through blowholes, but through the mouth, which was somewhat drawn out. It was brown in colour with some lighter spots. A back fin was wanting, but when the animal raised itself it was possible, on account of its great leanness, to see its backbone projecting. I instituted a through examination of both my informants. Their accounts agreed completely, and appeared to have claims to be regarded as trustworthy. That the animal which they saw was actually a sea-cow, is clearly proved both by the description of the animal's form and way of pasturing in the water, and by the account of the way in which it breathed, its colour, and leanness. In Auesfurliche Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren, Steller says, p. 97, "While they pasture, they raise every fourth or fifth minute their nose from the water in order to blow out air and a little water;" p. 98, "During winter they are so lean that it is possible to count their vertebrae and ribs;" and p. 54, "Some sea-cows have pretty large white spots and streaks, so that they have a spotted appearance." As these natives had no knowledge of Steller's description of the animal, it is impossible that their statement can be false. The death-year of the Rhytina race must therefore be altered at least to 1854. With reference to this point it may be remarked that many circumstances indicate that the Rhytina herds were rather driven away from the rich pastures on Behring Island than exterminated there, and that the species became extinct because in their new haunt they were unable to maintain the struggle for existence. The form of the sea-cow, varying from that of most recent animals, besides indicates that, like the long-tailed duck on Iceland, the dront on Mauritius, and the large ostrich-like birds on New Zealand, it was the last representative of an animal group destined to extinction.
Mr. OSCHE, one of the Alaska Company's skin inspectors, a native of Liffland and at present settled on Copper Island, informed me that the bones of the sea-cow also occurred on the western side of that island. On the other hand, such bones are said not to be found on the small island described farther on lying off the colony on Behring Island, although Rhytina bones are common on the neighbouring shores of the main island.
This is the scanty information I have been able to collect from the natives and others resident in the quarter regarding the animal in question. On the other hand, my endeavours to procure Rhytina bones were crowned with greater success, and I succeeded in actually bringing together a very large and fine collection of skeleton fragments.
When I first made the acquaintance of Europeans on the island, they told me that there was little probability of finding anything of value in this respect, for the company had offered 150 roubles for a skeleton without success. But before I had been many hours on land, I came to know that large or small collections of bones were to be found here and there in the huts of the natives. These I purchased, intentionally paying for them such a price that the seller was more than satisfied and his neighbours were a little envious. A great part of the male population now began to search for bones very eagerly, and in this way I collected such a quantity that twenty-one casks, large boxes, or barrels were filled with Rhytina bones; among which were three very fine, complete skulls, and others more or less damaged, several considerable collections of bones from the same skeleton, &c.
The Rhytina bones do not lie at the level of the sea, but upon a strand-bank thickly overgrown with luxuriant grass, at a height of two or three metres above it. They are commonly covered with a layer of earth and gravel from thirty to fifty centimetres in thickness. In order to find them, as it would be too troublesome to dig the whole of the grassy bank, one must examine the ground with a pointed iron rod, a bayonet, or some such tool. One soon learns to distinguish, by the resistance and nature of the sound, whether the rod stuck into the ground has come into contact with a stone, a piece of wood, or a fragment of bone. The ribs are used by the natives, on account of their hard ivory-like structure, for shoeing the runners of the sledges or for carvings. They have accordingly been already used up on a large scale, and are more uncommon than other bones. The finger-bone, which perhaps originally was cartilaginous, appears in most cases to be quite destroyed, as well as the outermost vertebrae of the tail. I could not obtain any such bones, though I specially urged the natives to get me the smaller bones too and promised to pay a high price for them.
The only large animal which is still found on Behring Island in perhaps as large numbers as in Steller's time is the sea-bear. Even it had already diminished so that the year's catch was inconsiderable,[367] when in 1871 a single company obtained for a payment to the Russian crown, if I recollect right, of two roubles for every animal killed, and exclusive right to the hunting, which was accordingly arranged in a more purposelike way. At certain times of the year the killing of the sea-bear is wholly prohibited. The number of the animals to be killed is settled beforehand, quite in the same way as the farmer at the time of killing in autumn is wont to do with his herd of cattle. Females and young are only killed exceptionally. Even the married males, or more correctly the males that can get themselves a harem and can defend it, commonly escape being killed, if not for any other reason, because the skin is too often torn and tattered and the hair pulled out. It is thus the bachelors that have to yield up their skins.
That a wild animal may be slaughtered in so orderly a way, depends on its peculiar mode of life.[368] For the sea-bears are found year after year during summer at certain points projecting into the sea (rookeries), where, collected in hundreds of thousands, they pass several months without the least food. The males (oxen) come first to the place, most of them in the month of May or at the beginning of June. Combats of excessive violence, often with a deadly issue for one of the parties, now arise regarding the space of about a hundred square feet, which each seal-ox considers necessary for its home. The strongest and most successful in fight retain the best places near the shore, the weaker have to crawl farther up on land, where the expectation of getting a sufficient number of spouses is not particularly great. The fighting goes on with many feigned attacks and parades. At first the contest concerns the proprietorship of the soil. The attacked therefore never follows its opponent beyond the area it has once taken up, but haughtily lays itself down, when the enemy has retired, in order in the aims of sleep to collect forces for a new combat. The animal in such a case grunts with satisfaction, throws itself on its back, scratches itself with its fore-feet, looks after its toilet, or cools itself by slowly fanning with one of its hind-feet, but it is always on the alert and ready for a new fight until it is tired out and meets its match, and is driven by it farther up from the beach. One of the most peculiar traits of these animals is that during their stay on land they unceasingly use their hind-paws as fans, and sometimes also as parasols. Such fans may on a warm day be in motion at the same time by the hundred thousand at a "rookery."
In the middle of June the females come up from the sea. At the water's edge they are received in a very accommodating way by some strong oxen that have succeeded in securing for themselves places next the shore, and now are bent by fair means or foul on annexing the fair for their harem. But scarcely is the female that has come up out of the water established with seal-ox No. 1, when this ox rushes towards a new beauty on the surface of the water. Seal-ox No. 2 now stretches out his neck and without ceremony lays hold of No. 1's spouse, to be afterwards exposed to a repetition of the trick by No. 3. In such cases the females are quite passive, never fall out with each other, and bear with patience the severe wounds they often get when they are pulled about by the combatants, now in one direction, now in another. All the females are finally distributed in this way after furious combats among the males, those of the latter who are nearest the beach getting from twelve to fifteen consorts to their share. Those that have been compelled to settle farther from the shore must be content with four or five. Soon after the landing of the females they bring forth their young, which are treated with great indifference and are protected by the adopted father only within the boundaries of the harem. Next comes the pairing season, and when it has passed there is an end to the arrangement and distribution into families at first so strictly maintained. The seal-oxen, rendered lean by three months absolute fasting, by degrees leave the "rookery," which is taken possession of by the sea-cows, the young, and a number of young males, that have not ventured to the place before. In the middle of September, when the young have learned to swim, the place is quite abandoned, with the exception of single animals that have remained behind for one reason or other. In long continued heavy rain many of the animals besides seek protection in the sea, but return when the rain ceases. Continuous heat and sunshine besides exert the same influence, cold, moist air, with mist-concealed sun, on the other hand draw them up on land by thousands.
Males under six years of age cannot, like the older males, possess themselves, by fighting, of spouses and a home of their own. They therefore collect, along with young females, in herds of several thousand to several hundred thousand, on the shores between the rookeries proper, some of them close packed next the water's edge, others scattered in small flocks a little farther from the shore on the grass, where they by turns play with each other with a frolicsomeness like that of young dogs, by turns he down to sleep at a common signal in all conceivable positions.
It is these unfortunate useless bachelors which at the properly managed hunting stations yield the contingent for slaughter. For this purpose they are driven by the natives from the shore slowly, about a kilometre an hour, and with frequent rests, to the place of slaughter, situated a kilometre or two from the shore. Then the females and the young ones are driven away, as well as the males whose skins are unserviceable. The rest are first stunned with a blow on the head, and afterwards stabbed with a knife.
While the Vega steamed down towards Behring Island we met, already far from land, herds of sea-bears, which followed the vessel from curiosity for long stretches. Being unacquainted with the sea-bear's mode of life, I believed from this circumstance that they had already left their summer haunts, but on our arrival at the colony I was informed that this was not the case, but that a very great number of animals still remained at the rookery on the north-eastern point of the island. Naturally one of our first excursions was to this place, situated about twenty kilometres from the village. Such a journey cannot now be undertaken alone and unattended, because even an involuntary want of caution might easily cause much economic loss to the natives, and to the company that owns the right of hunting. During the journey we were accordingly accompanied by the chief of the village, a black-haired stammering Aleutian, and "the Cossack," a young, pleasant, and agreeable fellow, who on solemn occasions wore a sabre nearly as long as himself, but besides did not in the least correspond to the Cossack type of the writers of novels and plays.
The journey was performed in large sledges drawn by ten dogs over snow-free rounded hills and hill-plateaus covered with a rather scanty vegetation, and through valleys treeless as the mountains, but adorned with luxuriant vegetation, rich in splendid lilies, syngenesia, umbellifera, &c. The journey was sometimes tedious enough, but we now and then went at a whistling rate, especially when the dog-team descended the steep mountain slopes, or went through the morasses and the clay puddles formed in the constantly used way. The driver was bespattered from top to toe with a thick layer of mud, an inconvenience attending the unusual team, which was foreseen before our departure from the colony, in consequence of which our friends there urged that, notwithstanding the fine weather, we should all take overcoats. The dog-team was kept pretty far from the shore in order not to frighten the seals, and then we went on foot to the place where the sea-bears were, choosing our way so that we had the wind in our faces. We could in this way, without disturbing them, come very near the animals, which, according to the undoubtedly somewhat exaggerated statement made to us on the spot, were collected at the time to the number of 200,000, on the promontory and the neighbouring shores. We obtained permission to creep, accompanied by our guide, close to a herd lying a little apart. The older animals became at first somewhat uneasy when they observed our approach, but they soon settled down completely, and we had now the pleasure of beholding a peculiar spectacle. We were the only spectators. The scene consisted of a beach covered with stones and washed by foaming breakers, the background of the immeasurable ocean, and the actors of thousands of wonderfully-formed animals. A number of old males lay still and motionless, heedless of what was going on around them. Others crept clumsily on their small short legs between the stones of the beach, or swam with incredible agility among the breakers, played, caressed each other, and quarrelled. At one place two old animals fought, uttering a peculiar hissing sound, and in such a way as if the attack and defence had been carried out in studied attitudes. At another place a feigned combat was going on between an old and a young animal. It looked as if the latter was being instructed in the art of fighting. Everywhere the small black young ones crept constantly backwards and forwards among the old sea-bears, now and then bleating like lambs calling on their mothers. The young ones are often smothered by the old, when the latter, frightened in some way, rush out into the sea. After such an alarm hundreds of dead young are found on the shore.
"Only" thirteen thousand animals had been killed that year. Their flayed carcases lay heaped on the grass by the shore, spreading far and wide a disagreeable smell, which, however, had not frightened away their comrades lying on the neighbouring promontory, because, even among them, a similar smell prevailed in consequence of the many animals suffocated or killed in fight with their comrades, and left lying on the shore.[369] Among this great flock of sea-bears sat enthroned on the top of a high stone a single sea-lion, the only one of these animals we saw during our voyage.
For a payment of forty roubles I induced the chief of the village to skeletonise four of the half putrefied carcases of the sea-bear left lying on the grass, and I afterwards obtained, by the good-will of the Russian authorities, and without any payment, six animals, among them two living young, for stuffing. Even the latter we were compelled to kill, after in vain attempting to induce them to take some food. One of them was brought home in spirits for anatomical examination.
The part of Behring Island which we saw forms a high plain resting on volcanic rocks,[370] which, however, is interrupted at many places by deep kettle valleys, the bottoms of which are generally occupied by lakes which communicate with the sea by large or small rivers. The banks of the lakes and the slopes of the hills are covered with a luxuriant vegetation, rich in long grass and beautiful flowers, among them an iris cultivated in our gardens, the useful dark reddish-brown Sarana lily, several orchids, two species of rhododendron with large flowers, umbellifera as high as a man, sunflower-like synanthea, &c. Quite another nature prevailed on the island lying off the haven, regarding which Dr. Kjellman and Dr. Stuxberg make the following statements:--
"Toporkoff Island is formed of an eruptive rock, which everywhere rises along the shore some scores of feet from high-water mark, in the form of steep cracked walls from five to fifteen metres in height, which is different at different places. Above these steep rock-walls the surface of the island forms an even plain; what lies below them forms a gently sloping beach.
"This gently sloping beach consists of two well-marked belts; an outer devoid of all vegetation, an inner overgrown with Ammadenia peploides, Elymus mollis, and two species of umbellifera, Heracleum sibiricum, and Angelica archangelica, the two last forming an almost impenetrable thicket fifty metres broad and as high as a man, along the slope. The steep rock-walls are coloured yellow at some places by lichens, mostly Calopaca murorum and Cal. crenulata; at other places they are covered pretty closely with Cochlearia fenestrata. The uppermost level plain is covered with a close and luxuriant turf, over which single stalks of the two species of umbellifera named above raise themselves here and there. The vegetation on this little island unites a very uncommon poverty in species with a high degree of luxuriance.
"Of the higher animals we saw only four kinds of birds, viz Fratercula cirrhata, a black guillemot (Una grylle var. columba), a species of cormorant (Phalocrocorax) and a sort of gull (Larus). Fratercula cirrhata lived here by millions. They haunted the upper plain, where they had everywhere excavated short, deep, and uncommonly broad passages to sleep in, provided with two openings. From these on our arrival they flew in large flocks to the neighbouring sea and back. Their number was nearly equal to that of looms in the Arctic loomeries. The black guillemots and cormorants kept to the cliffs near the shore.
"The number of the evertebrate land animals amounted to about thirty species. The most numerous were Machilis, Vitrina, Lithobius, Talitrus, some Diptera and beetles. They all lived on the inner belt of the shore, where the ground was uncommonly damp."
Behring Island might without difficulty feed large herds of cattle, perhaps as numerous as the herds of sea-cows that formerly pastured on its shores. The sea-cow besides had chosen its pasture with discrimination, the sea there being, according to Dr. Kjellman, one of the richest in algae in the world. The sea-bottom is covered at favourably situated places by forests of seaweed from twenty to thirty metres high, which are so dense that the dredge could with difficulty force its way down into them, a circumstance which was much against the dredging. Certain of the algae are used by the natives as food.
In the course of our journey to the hunting place we had an opportunity, during a rest about halfway between it and the village, of taking part in a very peculiar sort of fishing. The place where we rested was in an even grassy plain, resembling a natural meadow at home, crossed by a large number of small rivulets. They abounded in several different kinds of fish, among them a Coregonus, a small trout, a middle-sized long salmon with almost white flesh, though the colour of its skin was a purplish-red, another salmon of about the same length, but thick and hump-backed. These fish were easily caught. They were taken with the hand, were harpooned with common unshod sticks, were stabbed with knives, caught with the insect net, &c. Other kinds of salmon with deep red flesh are to be found in the large rivers of the island. We obtained here for a trifle a welcome change from the preserved provisions of which we had long ago become quite tired. The Expedition was also presented by the Alaska Company with a fine fat ox, milk, and various other provisions, and I cannot sufficiently value the goodwill shown to us not only by the Russian official, N GREBNITSKI, a zealous and skilful naturalist, but also by the officials of the Alaska Company and all others living on the island with whom we came into contact.
It was my original intention to sail from Behring Island to Petiopaulovsk, in order from thence to put a stop to the undertakings which were possibly in contemplation for our relief. This however became unnecessary, because a steamer, which was to start for Petropaulovsk as soon as its cargo was on board, had anchored by the side of the Vega two days after our arrival. The steamer belonged to the Alaska Company, was named the Alexander, was commanded by Captain SANDMAN, and was manned almost exclusively by Swedes, Danes, Fins, and Norwegians[371]. We found on the Alexander two naturalists, Dr. BENEDIKT DYBOVSKI and Dr. JULIAN WIEMUT. The former is a Pole exiled to Siberia but now pardoned, whose masterly zoological works are among the best contributions which have been made during recent decades to our knowledge of the natural conditions of Siberia. His researches have hitherto mainly concerned the Baikal region. Now he wishes to extend them to Kamchatka, and has therefore voluntarily taken a physician's post at Petropaulovsk. Science has reason to expect very rich results from his work and that of his companions in one of the most interesting, most mis-known, and least known lands of the north.
The Vega left Behring Island on the afternoon of the 19th August, and anchored at Yokohama on the evening of the 2nd September. The first part of the passage, while we were still in the cold northerly Polar Sea current, was favoured by fair winds and moderate heat. The surface temperature of the sea was from +9 deg. to +10 deg.. On the 25th August in 45 deg. 15' N.L. and 156 deg. E.L. from Greenwich the temperature of the sea-water began to rise so rapidly that the thermometer in 40 deg. Lat. and 147 deg. 41' Long already showed +23.4 deg. at the surface. This indicated that we had come from the cold current favourable to us into Kuro-sivo, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific. The wind was now at times unfavourable and the heat oppressive, notwithstanding the frequent rain showers accompanied by lightning and heavy squalls. In such unfavourable weather on the 31st August the mainmast of the Vega was struck by lightning, the flash and the report being of excessive violence. The vane was broken loose and thrown into the sea along with some inches of the pole. The pole itself was split pretty far down, and all on board felt a more or less violent shaking, the man who felt it most standing at the time near the hawse-hole. The incident was not attended by any further noteworthy unpleasant consequences.
On our arrival at Yokohama we were all in good health and the Vega in excellent condition, though, after the long voyage, in want of some minor repairs, of docking, and possibly of coppering. Naturally among thirty men some mild attacks of illness could not be avoided in the course of a year, but no disease had been generally prevalent, and our state of health had constantly been excellent. Of scurvy we had not seen a trace.
[Footnote 356: In February 1871 the right of hunting on these islands was granted by the Russian government to Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus &c. Co., who have made over their rights to the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco. ]
[Footnote 357: According to a communication made to me by Mr. Henry W. Elliot, who, in order to study the fur-bearing seals in the North Behring Sea, lived a considerable time at the Seal Islands (Pribylov's Islands, &c.) on the American side, and has given an exceedingly interesting account of the animal life there in his work, A Report upon the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of Alaska, Washington, 1875, the statement in my report to Dr. Dickson, founded on oral communications of Europeans whom I met with at Behring Island, that from 50,000 to 100,000 animals are killed yearly at Behring and Copper Island, is thus probably somewhat exaggerated. ]
[Footnote 358: Original accounts of the wintering on Behring Island are to be found in Mueller's Sammlung Russischen Geschichte, St Petersburg, 1768, iii, pp. 228-238 and 242-268, (Steller's) Topographische und physikalische Beschreibung der Beringsinsel (Pallas' Neue Nordische Beytraege, St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1781-83, ii. p. 225), G.W. Steller's Tagebuch seiner Seereise aus dem Petripauls Hafen. . . und seiner Begebenheiten auf der Rueckreise (Pallas' Neueste Nordische Beytraege, St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1793-96, i. p. 130; ii. p. 1). ]
[Footnote 359: According to Mueller, whose statements (based on communications by Waxel?) often differ from those of Steller. The latter says that the flesh of the sea-otter is better than that of the seal, and a good antidote to scurvy. The flesh of the young sea-otter might even compete with lamb as a delicacy. ]
[Footnote 360: To judge by what is stated in Steller's description of Behring Island (Neue nord. Beytr., ii, p. 290) no one would have dared to attack "diese grimmigen Thiere," and the only sea-lion eaten during the winter was an animal wounded at Kamchatka and thrown up dead on the coast of Behring Island. The fin-like feet were the most delicate part of the sea-lion. ]
[Footnote 361: According to Mueller's official report, probably written for the purpose of refuting the rumours regarding Steller's fate current in the scientific circles of Europe. According to the biography prefixed to Georg Wilhelm Steller's Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, herausgegeben von J.B.S. (Scheerer), Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1774, Steller had in 1745 begun his return to St. Petersburg, and was already beyond Novgorod, when he received orders to appear before the court at Irkutsk. After a year he obtained permission to travel to St. Petersburg, but when he came to the neighbourhood of Moscow, he received a new order to return, and for farther security he was placed under a guard. They had travelled a good way into Siberia, when he froze to death while the guard went into a public-house to warm themselves and quench their thirst. ]
[Footnote 362: As early as Schelechov's wintering at 1783-84 the foxes on Behring Island were principally white. During Steller's wintering, over a third of the foxes on the island had a bluish fur (Neue nord. Beytr., ii, p. 277). In the year 1747-48 a fur hunter, Cholodilov, caught on Behring Island 1,481 blue foxes and 350 sea-otters, and the following year another hunter returned with over a thousand sea otters and two thousand blue foxes, which probably were also caught on Behring and Copper Islands (Neue Nachrichten von denen neuentdeckten Insuln, Hamburg u Leipzig, 1766, p. 20). In the year 1751-53 Jugov caught on the same island 790 sea-otters, 6,844 black and 200 white foxes, and 2,212 sea-bears (loc. cit. p. 22). In 1752-53 the crew of a vessel belonging to the Irkutsk merchant, Nikifor Trapeznikoff, caught on Behring Island 5 sea-otters, 1,222 foxes (colour not stated), and 2,500 sea-bears (loc. cit. p. 32). It thus appears as if the eager hunting had an influence not only on the number of the animals but also on their colour, the variety in greatest demand becoming also relatively less common than before. ]
[Footnote 363: From this little work, compiled from the original journals (Cf. Coxe, Russian Discoveries, 1780, p. vi.) we see that the undaunted courage and the resolution which, matched with other qualities not so praiseworthy, distinguished the Promyschlenni during their expeditions of exploration, tribute-collecting, and plunder from the Ob to Kamchatka, did not fail them in the attempt to force their way across the sea to America. It happens yearly that a ship's crew save themselves from destruction in the most extraordinary craft, for necessity has no law. But it is perhaps not so common that an exploring expedition, wrecked on an uninhabited treeless island, builds for itself of fragments from its own vessel, indeed even of driftwood, a new one in order to sail out on the ocean to discover new fishing-grounds or new wild tribes, willing to pay "jassak" to the adventurers. This however happened very frequently during the Russian voyages of discovery and hunting to the Aleutian Islands from 1745 to 1770, and it was remarkable that the craft built in this way were used for years, even after the return from the first voyage. ]
[Footnote 364: The sea-cow does not appear to have ever occurred on the Aleutian Islands; on the other hand, according to Steller, dead sea-cows have sometimes been cast ashore on Kamchatka, where they even obtained from the Russians a peculiar name kapustnik, derived from the large quantity of sea-weed found in their stomach. It appears to me that this name, specially distinctive of a graminivorous animal, appeals to indicate that on the first arrival of the Russians at Kamchatka the sea-cow actually visited occasionally the coasts of that peninsula. It is probable that in former times the sea-cow was to be met with as far south as the north part of Japan. Some scientific men have even conjectured that the animal may have occurred north of Behring's Straits. This however is improbable. Among the mass of subfossil bones of marine animals which we examined at Pitlekaj the bones of the sea-cow did not appear to be present. ]
[Footnote 365: Von Baer's and Brandt's numerous writings on the sea-cow are to be found in the publications of the St. Petersburg Academy. ]
[Footnote 366: That the hide of the sea-cow was used for baydars is evident from the short extract given from Korovin's voyage. On hearing this "creole's" account I inquired whether there were not to be found remaining on the island any very old sea-cow skins that had been used for baydars, but the answer unfortunately was in the negative. ]
[Footnote 367: The number of these animals killed on Behring Island is shown by the following statement given me by Mr. Henry. W. Elliot:
In the Year In the Year In the Year 1867 27,500 1872 29,318 1877 21,532 1868 12,000 1873 30,396 1878 31,340 1869 24,000 1874 31,292 1879 42,752 1870 24,000 1875 36,274 1880 48,504 1871 3,614 1876 26,960
During the eighteen years from 1862 to 1880 there have thus been shipped from Behring Island 389,462 skins. The catch on the Pribylov Islands has been still larger. These islands were discovered in 1786, but the number of animals killed there is not known for the first ten years; it is only known that it was enormously large. In the years 1797-1880--that is in eighty-four years--over three-and-a-half millions of skins have been exported from these islands. In recent years the catch has increased so that in each of the years from 1872 to 1880, 99,000 animals might have been killed without inconvenience. ]
[Footnote 368: The traits here given of the sea-bear's mode of life are mainly taken from Henry W. Elliot's work quoted above. ]
[Footnote 369: Elliott (loc. cit. p. 150) remarks that not a single self-dead seal is to be found in the "rookery," where there are so many animals that they probably die of old age in thousands. This may be explained by the seals, when they become sick, withdrawing to the sea, and forms another contribution to the question of the finding of self-dead animals to which I have already referred (vol. i. p. 322). ]
[Footnote 370: According to a statement by Mr. Giebnitski, tertiary fossils and coal seams are also to be found on Behring Island, the former north of the colony in the interior, the latter at the beach south of Behring's grave. Also in the neighbourhood of the colony the volcanic rock-masses are under-stratified by thick sandy beds. ]
[Footnote 371: The first European who welcomed us after the completion of the North-east passage was a Fin now settled in California, from Bjoerkboda works in Kimito parish, in which I had lived a great deal when a youth. He was sent by the Alaska Company to do some work on Behring Island. As we steamed towards the colony he rowed to meet us, and saluted us with the cry "ar det Nordenskioeld?" ("Is it Nordenskioeld?") His name was Isak Andersson. ]
Chapter XVI
Arrival at Yokohama--A Telegram sent to Europe--The stranding of the steamer A.E. Nordenskioeld--Fetes in Japan-- The Minister of Marine, Kawamura--Prince Kito-Shira-Kava-- Audience of the Mikado--Graves of the Shoguns--Imperial Garden at Tokio--The Exhibition there--Visit to Enoshima-- Japanese manners and customs--Thunberg and Kaempfer.
Yokohama, the first harbour, telegraph station, and commercial town at which the Vega anchored after circumnavigating the north coast of Asia, is one of the Japanese coast cities which were opened to the commerce of the world after the treaty between the United States of America and Japan negotiated by Commodore PERRY.[372] At this place there was formerly only a little fishing village, whose inhabitants had never seen Europeans and were forbidden under severe punishments from entering into communication or trading with the crews of the foreign vessels that might possibly visit the coast. The former village is now, twenty years later, changed into a town of nearly 70,000 inhabitants, and consists not only of Japanese, but also of very fine European houses, shops, hotels, &c. It is also the residence of the governor of Kanagava Ken. It is in communication by rail with the neighbouring capital Tokio, by regular weekly 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 of 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 the telegram must therefore be sent by India, whereby the cost was nearly doubled. The telegraph officials also made difficulties about taking the foreign gold coin of various kinds which I had about me. Fortunately the latter difficulty was immediately removed by the accidental presence of the Russian consul, Mr. PELIKAN, while I was treating with the telegraph officials. When he heard that it concerned the sending home of a telegram from the much-talked-of Vega expedition, he immediately offered to arrange the affair until I had time to operate on the letter of credit I carried with me from Messrs. James Dickson &c. Co. of Gothenburg. Soon after I met with the Swedish consul, Mr. VAN OORDT, who gave us a large parcel of letters from home. It was very gladly received by most of us, as, so far as I know, it did not bring the thirty members of the expedition a single unexpected sorrowful message. I got, however, soon after landing, an unpleasant piece of news, viz that the steamer A.E. Nordenskioeld, which Mr. Sibiriakoff had sent to Behring's Straits and the Lena to our relief, had stranded on the east coast of Yesso. The shipwreck fortunately had not been attended with any loss of human life, and the vessel lay stranded on a sandbank in circumstances which made it probable that it would be got off without too great cost.
As the report of our arrival spread, I was immediately waited upon by various deputations with addresses of welcome, invitations to fetes, clubs, &c. A series of entertainments and festivities now began, which occupied a great part of the time we remained in this splendid and remarkable country. Perhaps a sketch of these festivities may yield a picture of Japan during the state of transition, which still prevails there, and which in a decade or two will undoubtedly belong to a past and to a great extent forgotten period, a picture which to future writers may possibly form a not unwelcome contribution to the knowledge of the Japan that now (1879) is. Such a sketch would however carry me too far beyond the subject of this narrative of travel, and require too much space, on which account I must confine myself to an enumeration of the festivities at the head of which were public authorities, learned societies, or clubs.
On the 10th September a grand dinner was given at the Grand Hotel, the principal European hotel--and very well kept--of Yokohama, by the Dutch minister, Chevalier VAN STOETWEGEN, who at the same time represents Sweden and Norway in Japan.
The members of the Expedition were here introduced to several members of the Japanese Government.
We were invited to a dejeuner a la fourchette, at one o'clock P.M. on the 11th September, at the Imperial summer palace Hamagoten, by Admiral KAWAMURA, minister of marine. At this entertainment there were present, besides the scientific men and officers of the Vega, and our minister, Herr van Stoetwegen, several of the ministers and highest officials of Japan. Some of them spoke one or other of the European languages, others only Japanese, in which case officials of lower rank acted as interpreter these however taking no part in the entertainment along with the other guests. It was arranged after the European pattern, with abundance of dishes and wines. The palace consisted of a one-stoned wooden house in the Japanese style of construction. The rooms, to which we were admitted, were provided with European furniture, much the same as we would expect to find in the summer residence of a well-to-do family in Sweden. It was remarkable that the Japanese did not take the trouble to ornament the loom or the table to any considerable extent with the beautiful native bronzes or porcelain, of which there is such abundance in the country. The summer palace was surrounded by a garden which the Japanese consider something very extraordinary, and also on a very large scale. We should call it a small, well and originally kept miniature park, with carefully dressed turf, wonderful dwarf trees, miniature stone bridges, small ponds and waterfalls. The entertainment was very pleasant, and all, from our intelligent host to the Premier, Daiyo-daiyin, and the Imperial Prince, SANYO SANITOMI, showed us much friendliness. The latter looked a sickly young man, some years past twenty. He was, however, much older, and had taken a leading part in the most important political transactions since the opening of the ports. Our host, Admiral Kawamura, had more the appearance of a man of science than of a warrior. The modest exterior, however, concealed a great and noble man. For Kawamura, as commander of the Mikado's troops, had with special distinction brought about the suppression of the revolt under the brave Saigo Kichinosuke, who had at the restoration of the power of the Mikado been its heart and sword, but soon after fell before the government he himself contributed to create, and is now, a couple of years after, admired and sung by former friends and by former enemies as a national hero. All the Japanese present at the dejeuner were clad in European dress--in black dress coat and white tie. Even the interpreters and attendants wore the European dress. The people, the lower officials, and the servants in private houses are still clothed in the Japanese dress, but do not wear a sword, which is now prohibited. Many of the people have even exchanged the old troublesome Japanese dressing of the hair for the convenient European style.
In the course of conversation after the dejeuner the ministers offered to do all they could to make our stay in the country agreeable and instructive. Distinguished foreigners are always well received in Japan, and we are informed that a special committee is appointed to make arrangements for their reception. This has given offence in certain quarters, and shortly before our arrival a proclamation was issued by a secret society, which threatened, if no change were made, to kill one of the ministers and one of the foreigners who were entertained in this, in the opinion of the secret society, extravagant way. One of my Japanese friends promised me a copy of the proclamation, but did not keep his promise, probably because it was impossible for the uninitiated to get hold of the dangerous writing.
On the 13th September a grand dinner was arranged for us by the German Club, the photographer ANDERSEN being chairman. The hall was adorned in a festive manner with flags, and with representations of the Vega in various more or less dangerous positions among the ice, which had been got up for the occasion, the bill of fare had reference to the circumstances of our wintering, &c. A number of speeches were made, the feeling was cheerful and merry.
On the 15th September there was a grand entertainment in Tokio, given by the Tokio Geographical Society, the Asiatic Society of Japan, and the German Asiatic Society. It was held in the great hall in Koku-Dai-Gaku, a large stone building surrounded with beautiful trees, which were lighted up for the occasion by a number of variegated paper lanterns. Several Japanese ladies dressed in European style took part in the entertainment. I sat by the side of the chairman, Prince KITA-SHIRA-KAVA, a young member of the imperial house, who had served some time in the German army and speaks German very well. During the disturbances which were caused by the removal of the residence from Kioto to Yedo (Tokio), a group of insurgents had seized the prince, then a minor, who under the name of RINNOJINO-MIYA was chief priest in a temple, and endeavoured to set him up in opposition to the Emperor. The plan failed, and in consequence of the reconciliation at the end of the conflict, which distinguished in so honourable a way the many involved and bloody political struggles in Japan during recent years, this adventure was attended with no other insult for him than that the former chief priest was sent to a German military school. He was recalled sooner than was intended because he wished to marry a European, which was considered below the dignity of the family of the Mikado. After his return he was declared nearest heir to the throne, in case the Mikado should die without male heirs, and his name, KITA-SHIRA-KAVA-NO-MIYA, was changed a second time to YOHI HISHA. The former name was at the bottom of the speech he made for us at the dinner, and which he gave me, and the latter, with the addition, "Prince of Japan," was on his calling card. The dinner was quite European, with a large number of speeches, principally in European languages, but also in Japanese. Before every guest lay a map, of the form of a fan, with the course of the Vega marked upon it. As a memorial of the feast I received some days after a large medal in silver inlaid in gold, of which a drawing is given on pages 306, 307. We were conveyed back to the Tokio railway station in European equipages, in the same way as we had been brought to the dinner. During dinner musicians from the band of the imperial navy played European pieces of music with great skill, to the evident satisfaction of the Japanese.
On the forenoon of the 17th September we were presented at the court of the Mikado in Tokio by the Swedish-Dutch minister. We were fetched from the railway station by imperial equipages, consisting of simple but ornamental and convenient suflett carriages, each drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses of no great size. As is common in Japan, a running groom, clad in black, accompanied each carriage. The reception took place in the imperial palace, a very modest wooden building. The rooms we saw were furnished, almost poorly, in European fashion. We first assembled in an antechamber, the only remarkable ornament of which was a large piece of nephrite, which was a little carved and had a Chinese inscription on it. Here we were met by some of the ministers and the interpreter. After a short conversation, in the course of which the interpreter got a sight of the written speech, or more correctly the words of salutation, I was to speak, we were conducted into an inner apartment where the Emperor, clad in a uniform of European style and standing in front of a throne, received us. The only thing unusual at our reception was that we were requested at our departure not to turn our backs to the Emperor, and on entering and departing to make three bows, one at the door, another when we had come forward a little on the floor, and one at the place where we were to stand. After we had been presented the Emperor read a speech in Japanese, which was translated into French by the interpreter, and of which, before we left the place, a beautiful copy was given me, I then read my salutation, on which our minister, van Stoetwegen, said a few words, and got some words in reply. After leaving the imperial chamber, we were entertained in the anteroom with Japanese tea and cigars. The two princes who had taken part in the entertainment of the 15th came and talked a little with us, as did the minister of foreign affairs. The Emperor MUTSUHITO, in whose name reforms have been carried out in Japan to an extent to which history can scarcely show anything equal, was born the 3rd November, 1850. He is considered the 121st Mikado of the race of Jimmu Tenno, the members of which have reigned uninterruptedly in Japan for nearly two thousand years, with varying fates and with varying power--now as wise lawgivers and mighty warriors, now for long periods as weak and effeminate rulers, emperors only in seeming, to whom almost divine homage was paid, but who were carefully freed from the burden of government and from all actual power. In comparison with this race, whose first ancestor lived during the first century after the foundation of Rome, all the royal houses now reigning in Europe are children of yesterday. Its present representative does not look to be very strong. During the whole audience he stood so motionless that he might have been taken for a wax figure, if he had not himself read his speech. Prince Kita-Shira-Kava has the appearance of a young lieutenant of hussars. Most of the ministers have sharply marked features,[373] which remind one of the many furious storms they have survived, and the many personal dangers to which they have been exposed, partly in honourable conflict, partly through murderers' plots. For, unfortunately, a political murder is not yet considered in Japan an infamous crime, but the murderer openly acknowledges his deed and takes the consequences. Repeated murderous attempts have been made against the men of the new time. In order to protect themselves from these, ministers, when they go out, generally have their carriages surrounded by an armed guard on horseback.
On the 18th September several of the members of the Vega expedition were invited to a dejeuner a la fourchette by Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine. This entertainment had an interest for us because we were here for the first time received into a Japanese home. I sat at table by the side of Lady Kawamura. Even the children were present at the entertainment. Lady Kawamura was dressed in the Japanese fashion, tastefully but very plainly, if we except a heavy gold chain encircling the waist. In other respects the entertainment was arranged according to the European mode, with a succession of dishes and wines, both in abundance, according to the laws of gastronomy. When it was over our host offered us an airing in a carriage, during which I rode with the lady and one of the children, a little girl about ten years of age, who would have been very beautiful if she had not been disfigured, in the eyes of Europeans, by the thick white paint that was evenly spread over her whole face, and gave it a sickly appearance. Lady Kawamura herself was not painted, nor was she disfigured with blackened teeth. Most of the married women of Japan are accustomed after marriage to blacken their formerly dazzlingly white teeth, but it is to be hoped that this unpleasant custom will soon disappear, as the women of distinction have begun to abandon it. During this excursion we visited, among other places, the graves of the Tycoons, the imperial garden, and a very remarkable exhibition in the capital.
A number of the Tycoons, or, as they are more correctly called, Shoguns, are buried in Tokio. Their place of sepulture is one of the most remarkable memorials of Old Japan. The graves are in a temple which is divided into several courts, surrounded by walls and connected with each other by beautiful gates. The first of these courts is ornamented with more than two hundred stone lanterns, presented to the temple by the feudal princes of the country, the name of the giver and the date at which it was given being inscribed on each. Some of these peculiar memorials are only half-finished, perhaps an evidence of the sudden close of the power of the Shoguns and the feudal princes in Japan. In another of the temple courts are to be seen lanterns of bronze, partly gilt, presented by other feudal princes. A third court is occupied by a temple, a splendid memorial of the old Japanese architecture, and of the antique method of adorning their sanctuaries with wooden carvings, gilding, and varnishing. The temple abounds in old book-rolls, bells, drums, beautiful old lacquered articles, &c. The graves themselves lie within a separate enclosure.
The common Japanese gardens are not beautiful according to European taste. They are often so small that they might without inconvenience, with trees, grottos, and waterfalls, be accommodated in a small State's department in one of the crystal palaces of the international exhibitions. All, passages, rocks, trees, ponds, yea, even the fishes in the dams, are artificial or artificially changed. The trees are, by a special art which has been very highly developed in Japan, forced to assume the nature of dwarfs, and are besides so pruned that the whole plant has the appearance of a dry stem on which some green clumps have been hung up here and there. The form of the gold fish swimming in the ponds has also been changed, so that they have often two or four tail-fins each, and a number of growths not known in their natural state. On the walks thick layers of pebbles are placed to keep the feet from being dirtied, and at the doors of dwelling-houses there is nearly always a block of granite with a cauldron-like depression excavated in it, which is kept filled with clean water. Upon this stone cauldron is placed a simple but clean wooden scoop, with which one can take water out of the vessel to wash himself with.
The imperial garden in Tokio is distinguished from these miniature gardens by its greater extent, and by the trees, at least at most places, bearing fruit. There is here a veritable park, with uncommonly large, splendid, and luxuriantly-growing trees.
The public is generally excluded from the garden. At our visit we were entertained in one of the imperial summer-houses with Japanese tea, sweetmeats, and cigars.
Last of all we visited the Exhibition. It had been closed for some time back on account of cholera. We saw here a number of beautiful specimens of Japanese art, from the flint tools and pottery of the Stone Age to the silks, porcelain, and bronzes of the present. In no country is there at this day such a love for exhibitions as in Japan. There are small exhibitions in most of the large towns. Many were exceedingly instructive; in all there were to be seen beautiful lacquered wares, porcelain, swords, silk, cloths, &c. In one I saw a collection of the birds and fishes of Japan, in another I discovered some vegetable impressions, by means of which I became acquainted with the remarkable locality for fossil plants at Mogi, of which I shall give an account farther on.
On the evening of the 18th September I was invited by the Danish consul, Herr BAVIER, to a boat excursion up the river which debouches at Tokio. At its mouth it is very broad and deep, and it branches somewhat farther up into several streams which are navigable by the shallow boats of the Japanese. With the present limited development of roads and railways in Japan, this river and its tributaries form the most important channels of communication between the capital and the interior of the country. During our row we constantly met with boats laden with provisions on their way to, or with goods on their way from, the town. The pleasant impression of these and of the remarkable environs of the river is sometimes disturbed by a bad odour coming from a passing boat, and reminding us of the care with which the Japanese remove human excreta, the most important manure of their well-cultivated land. Along the banks of the river there are numerous restaurants and tea-houses. At long intervals we see a garden on the banks, which has belonged to some of the former Daimio palaces. The restaurants and tea-houses are generally intended only for the Japanese; and Europeans, although they pay many times more than the natives, are not admitted. The reason of this is to be found in our manners, which are coarse and uncultivated in the eyes of the natives. "The European walks with his dirty boots on the carpets, spits on the floor, is uncivil to the girls, &c." Thanks to the letters of introduction from natives acquainted with the restaurant-keepers, I have been admitted to their exclusive places, and it must be admitted that everything there was so clean, neat, and orderly, that even the best European restaurants cannot compare with them. When a visitor enters a Japanese restaurant which is intended exclusively for the Japanese, he must always take off his boots at the stair else he gets immediately into disfavour. He is received with bended knee by the host and all the attendants, male, but principally female, and then he is almost always surrounded by a number of young girls constantly laughing and chattering. These girls have commonly sold themselves to the restaurant-keeper for a certain time, during which they carry on a life which, according to European standards of morality, is not very commendable. When the time fixed in the agreement has passed, they return to their homes and marry, without having sunk in any way in the estimation of their relatives. But those are unfortunate who, in any of the towns that are not yet opened to foreigners, carry on a love intrigue with a European. They are then openly pointed out, even in the newspapers, as immoral, and their respectability is helplessly gone. Formerly they were even in such cases severely punished.
All women of the lower classes, and even most of the higher, wear the Japanese dress. The more distinguished ladies are often exceedingly beautiful, they have in particular beautiful necks. Unfortunately they are often disfigured by paint, for which the ladies here appear to have a strong liking. The dress of the younger women, even among the poor, is carefully attended to; it is not showy but tasteful, and nearly the same for all classes. Their manners are very attractive and agreeable. The women of the upper classes already begin to take part in the social life of the Europeans, and all European gentlemen and ladies with whom I have conversed on this point agree in stating that there is no difficulty in the way of a Japanese woman leaving the narrow circle to which she was formerly confined, and entering with pleasure and womanly dignity into European society. She appears to be born "a lady."
On the 20th and 21st September the Governor of Yokohama had arranged an excursion for me, Dr. Stuxberg, and Lieut. Nordquist, to the sacred island or peninsula Enoshima, situated at a short distance from the town. We first travelled some English miles along the excellent road Tokaido, one of the few highways in Japan passable in carriages. Then we travelled in jinrikishas to the famous image of Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura[374], and visited the Shinto chief priest living in the neighbourhood and his temple.
The priest was fond of antiquities, and had a collection, not very large indeed, but composed almost entirely of rarities. Among other things he showed us sabres of great value, a head ornament consisting of a single piece of nephrite which he valued at 500 yen,[373] a number of old bronzes, mirrors, &c. We were received as usual with Japanese tea and sweetmeats. The priest himself took us round his temple. No images were to be seen here, but the walls were richly carved and ornamented with a number of drawings and gildings. The innermost wall of the temple was fenced by heavy doors provided with secure locks and bolts, within which "the divine spirit dwelt," or within which "there was nothing else," as the priest phrased it on another occasion.
Enoshima is a little rocky peninsula, which is connected with the mainland by a low, sandy neck of land. Occasionally this neck of land has been broken through or overflowed, and the peninsula has then been converted into an island. It is considered sacred, and is studded with Shinto temples. On the side of the peninsula next the mainland there is a little village, consisting of inns, tea-houses, and shops for pilgrims' and tourists' articles, among which are beautiful shells, and the fine siliceous skeleton of a sponge, Hyalonema mirabilis, Gray. Here I lived for the first time in a Japanese inn of the sort to which Europeans in ordinary circumstances are not admitted. I was accompanied by two officials from the governor's court at Yokohama, and it was on their assurance that I did not belong to the common sort of uncultivated and arrogant foreigners that the host made no difficulty in receiving us.
After we had at our entrance saluted the people of the inn and passed some time in the exchange of civilities, there came a girl, and, in a kneeling posture, offered the foreigners Japanese tea, which is always handed round in very small cups only half full. Then we took off our shoes and went into the guest-chamber. Such chambers in the Japanese inns are commonly large and dazzlingly clean. Furniture is completely wanting but the floor is covered with mats of plaited straw. The walls are ornamented with songs suitable for the place, or mottoes, and with Japanese paintings. The rooms are separated from each other by thin movable panels, which slide in grooves, which can be removed or replaced at will. One may, therefore, as once happened to me, lay himself down to sleep in a very large room, and, if he sleeps sound, awake in the morning in a very small one. The room generally looks out on a Japanese garden-inclosure, or if it is in the upper story, on a small balcony. Immediately outside there is always a vessel filled with water and a scoop. Generally on one side of the room there is a wall-press, in which the bed-clothes are kept. Those, the only household articles in the room, consist of a thick mat, which is spread on the floor, a round cushion for the head, or instead of it a wooden support, stuffed on the upper side, for the neck during sleep, and a thick stuffed night-shirt which serves at covering.
As soon as one comes in the female attendants distribute four-cornered cushions for sitting on, which are placed on the floor round a wooden box, on one corner of which stands a little brazier, on the other a high clay vessel of uniform breadth, with water in the bottom, which serves as a spittoon and tobacco-ash cup. At the same time tea is brought in anew, in the small cups previously described, with saucers, not of porcelain, but of metal. Pipes are lighted, and a lively conversation commences. Along with the tea sweetmeats are brought in, of which, however, some cannot be relished by Europeans. The brazier forms the most important household article of the Japanese. Braziers are very variable in size and shape, but are often made in an exceedingly beautiful and tasteful way, of cast-iron or bronze, with gilding and raised figures. Often enough, however, they consist only of a clay crock. The Japanese are very skilful in keeping up fire in them without the least trace of fumes being perceptible in the room. The fuel consists of some well-burned pieces of charcoal, which lie imbedded in white straw-ashes, with which the fire-pan is nearly filled to the brim. When some glowing coals are laid in such ashes they retain their heat for hours, until they are completely consumed. In every well-furnished house there are a number of braziers of different sizes, and there are often four-cornered hatches in the floor, which conceal a stone foundation intended as a base for the large brazier, over which the food is cooked.
At meal-times all the dishes are brought in at the same time on small lacquered tables, about half a foot high, and with a surface of four square feet. The dishes are placed in lacquered cups, less frequently in porcelain cups, and carried to the mouth with chop-sticks, without the help of knife, fork, or spoon. For fear of the fish-oils, which are used instead of butter, I never dared to test completely the productions of the Japanese art of cookery; but Dr. Almquist and Lieut. Nordquist, who were more unprejudiced, said they could put up with them very well. The following menu gives an idea of what a Japanese inn of the better class has to offer:--
Vegetable soup. Boiled rice, sometimes with minced fowl. Boiled fish or raw fish with horse-radish. Vegetables with fish-sauce. Tea.
Soy is used to the fish. The rice is brought in hot in a wooden vessel with a lid, and is distributed in abundance, but the other dishes in extremely small portions. After meals, especially in the evening, the Japanese often drink warm saki, or rice-brandy, out of peculiar porcelain bottles and small cups set apart for that purpose alone.
During the meal one is commonly surrounded by a numerous personnel of female attendants, squatted down on the floor, who keep up with the guest, if he understands their language, a lively conversation, interrupted by salvoes of hearty laughter. The girls remain while the man undresses in the evening, and permit themselves to make remarks on the difference of the physique, of the Europeans and Japanese, which are not only, in our way of thinking, unsuitable for young girls, but even impertinent towards the guest. The male attendants are seldom seen, at least in the inner apartments. In the morning one washes himself in the yard or on the balcony, and if he wishes to avoid getting into disfavour, the guest will be careful not to spill anything or spit on the mat.
The Japanese tobacco-pipe now in use resembles that of the Chukches, is very small, and is smoked out in a couple of whiffs. A Japanese smokes without stopping a score of pipes in succession. Tobacco-smoking is now very general among high and low of both sexes. It was introduced at the close of the sixteenth century, it is uncertain whether from Corea or from the Portuguese possessions in Asia, and spread with great rapidity. As among us, it here too at first gave occasion to stringent prohibitions, and a lively exchange of writings for and against. In a work by the learned Japanologist, Mr. E.M. SATOW ("The Introduction of Tobacco into Japan," Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol vi. part i. p. 68), the following statements among others are made on this subject:--
"In 1609 there were in the capital two clubs whose main delight was to contrive quarrels with peaceful citizens. Upwards of fifty of the members of these clubs were suddenly arrested and thrown into prison; but justice was satisfied when four or five of the leaders were executed, the rest were pardoned. As these societies were originally smoking clubs, the tobacco-plant came by the bad behaviour of their members into disrepute, and its use was prohibited. At that time tobacco was smoked in long pipes, which were stuck in the belt like a sword, or carried after the smoker by an attendant. In 1612 a proclamation was published in which tobacco-smoking and all trade in tobacco were prohibited, under penalty of forfeiture of estate. The prohibition was repeated several times, with as little success as in Europe."
Mr. Satow further gives the following peculiar extracts from a Japanese work, which enumerates the advantages and disadvantages that are connected with tobacco-smoking:--
"A--ADVANTAGES.
"1. It dispels the vapours and increases the energies."
"2. It is good to produce at the beginning of a feast."
"3. It is a companion in solitude."
"4. It affords an excuse for resting now and then from work, as if in order to take breath."
"5. It is a storehouse of reflection, and gives time for the fumes of wrath to dispense."
"B--DISADVANTAGES
"1. There is a natural tendency to hit people over the head with one's pipe in a fit of anger."[376]
"2. The pipe comes sometimes to be used for arranging the burning charcoal in the brazier."
"3. An inveterate smoker has been known to walk about among the dishes with his pipe in his mouth."
"4. People knock the ashes out of their pipes while still alight and forget to extinguish the fire."
"5. Hence clothing and mats are frequently scorched by burning tobacco ash."
"6. Smokers spit indiscriminately in braziers, foot-warmers, and kitchen fires."
"7. Also in the crevices between the floor-mats."
"8. They rap the pipe violently on the edge of the brazier."
"9. They forget to have the ash-pot emptied till it is full to overflowing."
"10. They use the ash-pot as nose-paper (i.e. they blow their nose into the ash-pot)".
As during our stay at Enoshima as the governor's guests we were constantly attended by two officials from his court, I considered it my duty to show myself worthy of the honour by a liberal distribution of drink-money. This is not given to the attendants, but is handed, wrapped up in paper, and accompanied by some choice courteous expressions, to the host himself. He on his part makes a polite speech with apologies that all had not been so well arranged as his honoured guest had a right to expect. He accompanies the traveller on his departure a shorter or longer distance in proportion to the amount of drink-money and the way in which his guest has behaved.
It is a specially praiseworthy custom among the Japanese to allow the trees in the neighbourhood of the temples to stand untouched. Nearly every temple, even the most inconsiderable, is therefore surrounded by a little grove, formed of the most splendid pines, particularly Cryptomeria and Ginko, which often wholly conceal the small, decayed, and ill-kept wooden hut which is dedicated to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto.
On the 23rd September the Europeans and Japanese of Yokohama gave a dinner and ball for us in the hall of the English club. It was beautifully lighted and decorated. Among other things there were to be seen on a wall portraits of Berzelius and Thunberg, surrounded by garlands of greenery. The latter has a high reputation in Japan. His work on the flora of the country has lately been published in a Japanese edition with a wood-cut portrait, by no means bad, of the famous Swedish naturalist,[377] engraved in Japan; and a monument to his and Kaempfer's memory is to be found at Nagasaki, erected there at the instance of von Siebold.[378] The chairman of the feast was Dr. GEERTZ, a Dutchman, who had lived a long time in the country and published several valuable works on its natural productions.
On the 26th September I started for Tokio, in order thence to undertake a journey proposed and arranged by the Danish consul, Herr Bavier, to Asamayama, a yet active volcano in the interior of the country. In consequence of an unexpected death among the European consuls at Yokohama, Herr Bavier, however, could not join us until the day after that which had been fixed for our departure. The 27th accordingly was passed in Tokio among other things, in seeing the beautiful collections of antiquities made by the attache of the Austrian legation, Herr H. VON SIEBOLD, son of the famous naturalist of the same name. Japan has also, like most other lands, had its Stone Age, from which remains are found at several places in the country, both on Yezo and on the more southerly islands. Implements from this period are now collected assiduously both by natives and Europeans, and have been described by H. von Siebold in a work accompanied by photographic illustrations. In general the implements of the Japanese stone folk have a resemblance to the stone tools still in use among the Eskimo, and even in this fruitful land the primitive race, as the bone remains in the kitchen-middens show, lived at first mainly by hunting and fishing.
[Footnote 372: The Dutch had permission in former times to send some vessels annually to Nagasaki. By Perry's treaty, signed on the 31st March, 1854, Shimoda and Hakodate were opened to the Americans. Finally, by new treaties with the United States and various European powers, the harbours Kanagava (Yokohama), Nagasaki, Hakodate, Niigata, Hiogo, and Osaka, were assigned for commerce with foreigners. ]
[Footnote 373: At first it strikes a European as if all the Japanese had about the same appearance, but when one has got accustomed to the colour of the skin and the traits of the race, the features of the Japanese appear as various in form and expression as those of Europeans. ]
[Footnote 374: At the close of the twelfth century this now inconsiderable town was the residence of Joritomo, the founder of the Shogun power, and the arranger of the Japanese feudal system. ]
[Footnote 375: Five yen are about equal to 1 pound sterling. ]
[Footnote 376: The Japanese pipes are now so small that no serious results from this disadvantage are to be dreaded. In former times the pipes used were long and probably heavy. The Dyaks of Borneo still use pipes so heavy that they may be used as weapons. ]
[Footnote 377: The work bears the title Tai-sei-hon-zo-mei-so (short list of European plant-names), by Ito-Keske, 1829, 3 vols. ]
[Footnote 378: Carl Peter Thunberg, born at Joenkoeping in 1743, famed for his travels in South Africa, Japan, &c., and for a number of important scientific works, finally Professor at Upsala, died in 1828. Engelbert Kaempfer, born in Westphalia in 1651, was secretary of the embassy that started from Sweden to Persia in 1683. Kaempfer, however, did not return with the embassy, but continued his travels in the southern and eastern parts of Asia, among them, even to Japan, which he visited in 1690-92, he died in 1716. Kaempfer's and Thunberg's works, together with the great work of von Siebold, who erected the monument to them, form the most important sources of the knowledge of the Japan that once was. ]
Chapter XVII
Excursion to Asamayama--The Nakasendo road--Takasaki-- Difficulty of obtaining quarters for the night--The Baths at Ikaho--Massage in Japan--Swedish matches--Travelling in Kago--Savavatari--Criminals--Kusatsu--The Hot Springs and their healing power--Rest at Rokuriga-hara--The summit of Asamayama--The descent--Journey over Usui-toge-- Japanese actors--Pictures of Japanese folk-life-- Return to Yokohama.
On the 28th September, early in the morning, accompanied by Lieut. Hovgaard, Herr Bavier, an interpreter, and a Japanese cook skilled in European cookery, I started on a journey to Asamayama. At first we travelled in two very rattling and inconvenient carriages, drawn each by a pair of horses, to the town Takasaki, situated on the great road "Nakasendo," which passes through the interior of the country and connects Tokio and Kioto. This road is considered something grand by the Japanese. In Sweden it would be called an indifferently kept district road. On this road jinrikishas are met in thousands, and a great many horses, oxen, and men, bearing heavy burdens, but with the exception of the posting carriages, by which, for some years back, a regular communication between Tokio and Takasaki has been kept up, not a single wheeled vehicle drawn by horses or oxen, and though the road passes through an unbroken series of populous villages, surrounded by well cultivated rice fields and small gardens, there is not a single workhorse or work-ox to be seen. For all the ground in Japan is cultivated by the hand, and there are few cattle.
Most of the roads in the country consist of foot-paths, so narrow that two laden horses can pass each other only with difficulty. Goods are therefore carried, where there is no canal or river, for the most part by men. The plains are extraordinarily well cultivated, and we must specially admire the industry with which water-courses have been cut and the uneven slopes changed into level terraces.
The post-horses on Nakasendo were so poor and wretched that in Sweden one would have been liable to punishment for cruelty to animals for using them. They went, however, at a pretty good speed. There were places for changing horses at regular distances of fifteen to twenty kilometres. The driver besides halted often on the way at some dwelling-house to take a couple of scoopfuls of water out of the water-vessel standing before it and throw them into the horses' mouths and between their hind-legs. The opportunity was always taken advantage of by the girls of the house to come out and offer the travellers a small cup of Japanese tea, an act of courtesy that was repaid with some friendly words and a copper coin.
When we visited any of the peasants' gardens by the wayside we were always received with extreme friendliness, either on a special dais in the common room looking to the road, or in an inner room whose floor was covered with a mat of dazzling whiteness, and on whose walls hung pictures, with songs and mottoes. The brazier was brought forward, tea and sweetmeats were handed round, all with lively conversation and frequent bows. The difference between the palace of the rich (if we may distinguish with the name any building in Japan) and the dwelling of the less well-to-do is much smaller here than in Europe. We did not see any beggars in our journey into the interior of the country.[379] Nor did the distraction of class appear to be so sharp as might be expected in a land where the evils of rank had been so great as in Old Japan. We several times saw in the inns by the roadside, people of condition who were travelling in jinrikishas eat their rice and drink their saki together with the coolies who were drawing their vehicles.
To judge by the crowds of children who swarmed everywhere along the roads the people must be very prolific. A girl of eight or ten years of age was seldom to be seen without another young one bound on her back. This burden did not appear to trouble the sister or attendant very much. Without giving herself any concern about the child or thinking of its existence, she took part actively in games, ran errands, &c.
Even in the interior of the country foreigners are received with great friendliness. The lower classes in Japan have also reason for this, for whatever influence the latest political changes may have had on the old kuge, daimio, and samurai families of Japan, the position of the cultivator of the soil is now much more secure than before, when he was harmed by hundreds of small tyrants. His dress is the same as before, with the exception, however, that a great proportion of the male population, even far into the interior, have laid aside the old troublesome way of collecting the hair in a knot over a close shaven spot on the crown of the head. Instead, they wear their thick raven-black hair cut short in the European style. How distinctive of the new period this change is may be seen from the eagerness with which the Japanese authorities questioned GOLOVIN about the religious and political revolutions which they assumed to have been connected with the change in the European mode of wearing the hair during the commencement of the nineteenth century, for the Russian ambassador LAXMAN, who was highly esteemed by the Japanese, had worn a pig-tail and powdered hair, while Golovin and his companions had their hair unpowdered and cut short.[380] When it is warm the workmen wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle round the waist and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked. They are thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the greater part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked. They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At least they do not refrain from undressing completely while bathing right in the midst of a crowd of men known and unknown, a state of things which at first, in consequence of the power of prejudice, shocks the European, but to which even the former prude gets accustomed sooner than one would suppose. We even frequently see European ladies drawn in a jinrikisha by a youth completely naked with the exception of the blue girdle. Many, especially of the younger men, have besides so well-formed a body, that the sculptor who could accurately reproduce it in marble would at once attain a reputation co-extensive with the globe.
Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population of about 20,000; but, like most of the towns of Japan, it differs little from many of the villages we passed through. We arrived late in the evening, and there had our first and last experience of an inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travelling in Japan, and to which they have themselves given occasion by the offensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. We knocked at the door of one inn after another without being received. At one place "the house was full," at another "the rooms were under repair," at a third "the inn people were out," &c. At last we had to apply to the police. When we had shown them our passport, we succeeded with their help in getting a night's lodging with an elderly host, who received us with a countenance which clearly indicated that he would rather have hewn us in pieces with one of the two swords he had formerly as samurai been entitled to wear, than received us under his roof. After our entrance he still turned to the police official with the cry of lamentation: "Must I then actually receive these barbarians?" But we had our revenge in a noble way. We took off our boots before we entered the room, were so profuse with talk, civilities, and bows, and on the whole behaved in such a courteous fashion, that our previously distracted host not only bade us welcome back, but also gave us a letter of introduction to the innkeepers at an inn where we were to stay next, declaring that if we showed this letter we need not fear any such disagreeable adventure as that just described.
Most of the houses in the Japanese towns are built of pretty thin, carefully joined timbers. But besides these there are to be seen here and there small houses with very thick walls, windows provided with heavy iron gratings, and doors that could be fastened with large locks and bolts. These houses are fire-resisting, and are used as storehouses for valuables and household articles when there is danger of fire. Fires are so common in Japan that it is supposed that a tenth part of every town is burned down yearly. The fireman corps is numerous, well ordered from old times, its members bold and daring. During our stay overnight at Takasaki we were lodged in such a fireproof house, in very large clean apartments with the floor partly covered with carpets after the European pattern. The walls were very thick and of brick, the interior fittings and stairs on the other hand of wood.
I have just mentioned that we were compelled to resort to the police in order to obtain quarters for the night. Policemen are numerous in Japan, both in town and country. For the most part they are taken from the former samurai class. They are clothed in the European style, and walk, with a long stick in a certain position under the arm, quietly and calmly on the streets and roads, without, except in cases of necessity, making any show of their authority. Commonly they are, or appear to be, young, and all have a gentlemanlike appearance. In a word, they appear to be equal to the best European police of the present day, and stand immeasurably above the guardian of the peace, or rather the raiser of dispeace, as he appeared some decades ago on the European continent. During the latest revolt the police were employed by the Government as infantry, and elicited general admiration by the fire, the gallantry, and the contempt of death with which they went into action with their old favourite weapon, the Japanese sword.
A passport is still required for travelling in the interior of the country, but this is easily obtained at the request of the consul if health or the wish to prosecute researches be given as the reason, it being possible perhaps to include common love of travelling under the latter head. Commercial travelling is not yet permitted in the interior, nor is the right of settling for the purpose of carrying on business granted to Europeans. The foreign ambassadors have often entered into negotiations in order to bring about a change on this point, but hitherto without success, because the Government, as a condition for the complete opening of the country, require the abrogation of the unreasonable "extraterritorial" arrangement which is in force, and by which the foreigner is not subject to the common laws and courts of Japan, but to the laws of his own country, administered by consular courts. An alteration in this point may however be brought about in a short time, as Japan will soon be sufficiently powerful to be able to abrogate all the injurious paragraphs in her treaties with the civilised countries of Europe. Now, besides, the ambassadors of the foreign powers, who in former times all acted together, have divided into two parties, of which one--Russia and America--wishes, or at least feigns to wish, gradually to free Japan from all tutelage and to place it on an equality with other civilised countries, the other again--England, Germany, Holland, and France--wishes still to retain the guardianship, which was established by violence, and confirmed by treaty several years ago.
Shortly before our arrival a quarrel took place between Japan and the European powers about, as the Japanese themselves said, a breach of international law, which caused much irritation in the country. A German vessel coming from Nagasaki, where the cholera was raging, on the advice of the German minister broke the quarantine prescribed by the Government, and without further precautions discharged her cargo in the harbour of Yokohama. That the cholera in this town was thereby made worse is indeed not only unproved but also undoubtedly incorrect, though many Japanese in their irritation positively affirmed that this was the case, but the words that were uttered by Japan's feted guest, ex-President General GRANT,[381] that the Japanese Government had the right without more ado to sink the vessel, have left a memory in the minds both of the Government and of the people, which may in the future lead them to a perhaps unwise but fully justified exertion of their strength were such a deed to be repeated.
The first impression of the Japanese, both men and women, is exceedingly pleasant, but many Europeans who have lived a considerable time in the country say that this impression is not maintained, a circumstance which in my belief depends more on the Europeans themselves than on the Japanese. For the European merchants are said not to find it so easy to cut gold here with a case-knife as before, and the ambassadors of the Great Powers find it day by day more difficult to maintain their old commanding standpoint towards a government which knows that a great future is before the country, if inconsiderate ambition or unlooked-for misfortune do not unexpectedly hinder its development. Another reproach, that the Japanese can imitate what another has done, but is unable himself to invent anything new, appears on the other hand to be justified in the meantime. But it is unreasonable to demand that a nation should not only in a few decades pass through a development for which centuries have been required in Europe, but also immediately reach the summit of the knowledge of our time so as to be at the same time creative. But it would be wonderful, if the natural science, literature, and art of the nineteenth century, transplanted among a gifted people, with a culture so peculiar and so pervasive, and with an art-sense so developed as those of Japan, did not in time produce new, splendid, and unexpected fruit. The same irresistible necessity which now drives the Japanese to learn all that the European and the American know, will, when he has reached that goal, spur him on to go further up the Nile river of research.
A short distance beyond Takasaki the road to the volcano to which we were on our way, was no longer along Nakasendo, and we could therefore no longer continue our journey in carriages drawn by horses, but were compelled to content ourselves with jinrikishas. In these, on the 29th of September, we traversed in five and a half hours the very hilly road to Ikaho, noted for its baths, situated at a height of 700 metres above the sea. The landscape here assumes a quite different stamp. The road which before ran over an unbroken plain, thickly peopled, and cultivated like a garden, now begins to pass between steep uncultivated hills, overgrown with tall, uncut, withered grass, separated by valleys in which run purling rivulets, nearly concealed by exceedingly luxuriant bushy thickets. Ikaho is celebrated for the warm, or more correctly hot, springs which well up from the volcanic hills which surround the little town, which is beautifully situated on a slope. As at the baths of Europe, invalids seek here a remedy for their ailments, and the town therefore consists almost exclusively of hotels, baths, and shops for the visitors. The baths are situated, partly in large open wooden sheds, where men and women bathe together without distinction, partly in private houses. In every bath there is a basin one metre in depth, to which a constant stream of water is conducted from some of the hot springs. The spring water has of course cooled very much before it is used, but is still so hot notwithstanding that I could only with difficulty remain in it a couple of seconds.
In the streets of the town we often met blind persons who walked about very safely without any attendant, only feeling their way with a long bamboo. They blew a short pipe now and then to warn passers-by of their presence. I thought at first that these unfortunates were trying to regain the sight of the eye at the hot springs, but on inquiring whether the water was beneficial in that respect, I was informed that they were not there as seekers after health, but as "massageurs" (shampooers). Massage has been in use in Japan for several centuries back, and therefore persons are often to be met with in the streets offering their services as massageurs, crying in the streets in about the same way as the fruit-sellers in Russia.
The inn where we lodged for the night, consisted as usual of a number of very clean rooms covered with mats, without furniture, but ornamented with songs and mottoes on the walls. One would live here exceedingly well, if like the Japanese he could manage to live wholly on the floor and conform carefully to the indispensable rules, an observance which besides is necessary, because otherwise the inmate is exposed to a very unfriendly reception not only from his host but also from the attendants. An inconvenience in travelling in Japan is the difficulty a European has in accustoming himself to the dietary of the Japanese. Bread they do not use, nor meat, but their food consists mainly of rice and fish, with fowls, fruit, mushrooms, sweetmeats, Japanese tea, &c., in addition. Fish is generally eaten raw, and in that case is said to differ little in taste from our pickled salmon. The food is not unfrequently cooked with fish oils of anything but an agreeable taste. If a traveller wishes to avoid this dietary, he must have his own cook with him on the journey. In this capacity there attended us a Japanese, whose name was Senkiti-San, but who was commonly called by his companions Kok-San (Mr. Cook). He had learned European (French) cooking at Yokohama, and during the journey devoted himself with so great zeal to his calling, that even in the deserts at the foot of Asamayama he gave himself no rest until he could offer us a dinner of five dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak, fowl fricasse, and omelette aux confitures, all thus consisting only of fowls and hens' eggs, cooked in different ways.
For some years back lucifer matches have been an article of necessity in Japan, and it was pleasing to us Swedes to observe that the Swedish matches have here a distinct preference over those of other countries. In nearly every little shop, even in the interior of the country, are to be seen the well-known boxes with the inscription "Saekerhets taendstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." But if we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many of them, along with the magic sentence unintelligible to the Japanese, an inscription indicating that they have been made by some Japanese manufacturer. On other boxes this is completely wanting, but the falsification is shown by an unfortunate error in the inscription. It thus appears that the Swedish matches are not only introduced into Japan on a large scale, but are also counterfeited, being made with the Swedish inscription on the box and with a cover resembling that used at home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as the original, and my Japanese servant bade me therefore, when I purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one of the right (Swedish) sort.
Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at many places in small towns and villages in the interior Japanese photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by no means bad work. The Japanese appear to have a great liking for having their by no means remarkable dwellings photographed. On several occasions, when we left a place we received from our host as a parting gift a photograph of his house or inn. Perhaps this was done with the same view as that which induces his European brother-in-trade to advertise at great expense.
Between Ikaho and Savavatari, our next resting-place, the road was so bad that the jinrikisha could no longer be used, we accordingly had to use the kago, a Japanese sedan-chair made of bamboo, of the appearance of which the accompanying wood-cut gives an idea. It is exceedingly inconvenient for Europeans, because they cannot like the Japanese sit with their legs crosswise under them, and in course of time it becomes tiresome to let them dangle without other support by the side of the kago. Even for the bearers this sedan chair strikes me as being of inconvenient construction, which is shown among other things by their halting an instant every two hundred, or in going up a hill, every hundred paces, in order to shift the shoulder under the bamboo pole. We went up-hill and down-hill with considerable speed however, so that we traversed the road between Ikaho and Savavatari, 6 ri or 23.6 kilometres in length, in ten hours. The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, and many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round the old temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be seen ancient tall Cryptomeria and Ginko trees. The burying places were commonly situated, not as at home, in the neighbourhood of the larger temples, but near the villages. They were not inclosed, but marked out by stone monuments from a third of a metre to half a metre in height, on one side of which an image of Buddha was sometimes sculptured. The recent graves were often adorned with flowers, and at some of them small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of wooden pins.
Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The streets between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. Here too there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous springs, at which invalids seek to regain health. The watering-place, however, is of less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu.
While we walked about the village in the evening we saw at one place a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a competition going on there. Two young men, who wore no other clothes than a narrow girdle going round the waist and between the legs, wrestled within a circle two or three metres across drawn on a sandy area. He was considered the victor who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond the circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The beginning of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants kneeling in the middle of the circle and sharply eying each other in order to make the attack at a signal given by the judge, when a single push might at once make an end of the contest. In this competition there took part about a dozen young men, all well grown, who in their turn stepped with some encouraging cries or gestures into the circle in order to test their powers. The spectators consisted of old men and women, and boys and girls of all ages. Most of them were clean and well-dressed, and had a very attractive appearance.
Here it was the youth of the village themselves that took part in the contest. But there are also in Japan persons who carry on these games as their occupation, and exhibit themselves for money. They are in general very fat, as appears from the accompanying drawing, which represents the beginning of the contest, when both the combatants are still watching to get a good hold.
Next day, the 1st October, we continued our journey to Kusatsu. The road was uphill for a distance of 550 metres, downhill for nearly as far, then up again, and ran often without any protecting fence past deep abysses, or over high bridges of the most dangerous construction. It was, therefore, impossible for any wheeled vehicle to traverse it, so that we had to use in some cases kagos, in others riding-horses. Unfortunately the Japanese high saddle does not suit the European, and if the traveller prefers a riding-horse to a kago, he must, if he does not carry a saddle with him, determine to ride on an unsaddled horse, which, with the wretched steeds that are only available here, soon becomes so unpleasant that he at last prefers to let his legs hang benumbed from the kago. A peculiarity in Japan is that the rider seldom himself guides his horse. It is commonly led by a halter by a groom running alongside the rider. These grooms are very light-footed and enduring, so that even at a rapid pace they are not left behind. Running footmen also attend the carriages of people of distinction in the towns and the mail-coaches on Nakasendo. When there is a crowd before the carriage they jump down and drive away the people by a dreadful shouting. From the mail-coach they also blow the post-horn, not just to the advantage of the ear-drums of the travellers.
The scenery by the roadside was exceedingly beautiful. Now it consisted of wild valleys, filled with luxuriant vegetation which completely concealed the crystal-clear streams purling in the bottoms; now of level grassy plains or hill-slopes, thickly studded with solitary trees, chiefly chestnuts and oaks. The inhabitants were fully occupied with the chestnut harvest. Before every hut mats were spread out, on which chestnuts lay drying in thick layers. Grain and cotton were being dried in the same small way, as it appeared to us Europeans. On the plains there stood besides in the neighbourhood of the cabins large mortars, by which the grain was reduced to groats. On the hills these tramp-stamps are partly replaced by small mills of an exceedingly simple construction, introduced by the Dutch.
We passed the 2nd October at Kusatsu, the Aix-la-Chapelle of Japan, famed like that place for its hot sulphurous springs. Innumerable invalids here seek an alleviation of their pains. The town lives upon them, and accordingly consists mainly of baths, inns, and shops for the visitors.
The inns are of the sort common in Japan, spacious, airy clean, without furniture, but with good braziers, miniature tea-services, clean matting, screens ornamented with poetical mottoes, which even when translated were almost unintelligible to us, friendly hosts, and numerous female attendants. If the traveller brings his own cook with him, as we did, he can live very comfortably, as I have before stated, at such an inn.
The hot springs which have conferred on Kusatsu its importance rise at the foot of a pretty high hill of volcanic origin. The rocks in the surrounding country consist exclusively of lava and volcanic tuffs, and a short distance from the town there is an extinct volcano in whose crater there are layers of sulphur.[382] In the immediate neighbourhood of the place where the main spring rises there is a thick solidified lava stream, surrounded by tuffs, which near the surface is cleft into a number of large vesicular blocks. From this point the hot water is conducted in long open wooden channels to the bath-house of the town, and to several evaporating pools, some by the wayside, others in the town, intended for collecting the solid constituents of the water, which are then sold in the country as medicine. The great evaporation from these pools, from the open channels and the hot baths, wraps the town almost constantly in a cloud of watery vapour, while a very strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen reminds us that this is one of the constituents of the healing waters.
The road between the wells and the town appears to form the principal promenade of the place. Along this are to be seen innumerable small monuments, from a half to a whole metre in height, consisting of pieces of lava heaped upon each other. These miniature memorials form by their littleness a peculiar contrast to the bauta stones and jettekast of our Swedish forefathers, and are one of the many instances of the people's fondness for the little and the neat, which are often to be met in Japan. They are said to be erected by visitors as thank-offerings to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto.
I received from a Japanese physician the following information regarding the wells at Kusatsu and their healing power. In and near the town there are twenty-two wells, with water of about the same quality, but of different uses in the healing of various diseases. In the hottest well the water where it rises has a temperature of 162 deg. F (= 72.2 deg. C.). The largest number of the sick who seek health at the baths, suffer from syphilis. This disease is now cured according to the European method, with mercury, iodide of potassium, and baths. The cure requires a hundred days, from seventy to eighty per cent. of the patients are cured completely, though purple spots remain on the skin. The disease does not break out anew. A large number of leprous patients also visit the baths. The leprosy is of various kinds; that with sores is alleviated by the baths, and is cured possibly in two years; that without sores but with the skin insensible is incurable, but is also checked by frequent bathing. All true lepers come from the coast provinces. A similar disease is produced also among the hills by the eating of tainted fish and fowl. This disease consists in the skin becoming insensible, the nerves inactive, and the patient, who otherwise feels well, finding it impossible to walk. It is also cured completely in very severe cases, by baths, ammonia applied inwardly, castor-oil, Peruvian bark, &c. A third type of this ailment is the bone-disease, kak'ke', which is exceedingly common in Japan, and is believed to be caused by unvarying food and want of exercise. It is very obstinate, but is often cured in two or three years with chloride of iron, albumen, change of diet from the common Japanese to the European, with red wine, milk, bread, vegetables, &c. This disease begins with a swelling in the legs, then the skin becomes insensible, first on the legs, next on the stomach, the face, and the wrists. Then the swelling falls, fever comes on, and death takes place. There are besides, certain wells for curing rheumatism, for which from two to three years are required; for eye-diseases and for headache, the latter playing an important part among the illnesses that are cured at Kusatsu. It principally attacks women between twenty and thirty years of age. One of the Kusatsu wells acts very beneficially in this case. Its water is conducted to a special bathing-shed open to the street, intended exclusively for the men and women who suffer from this disease.
Many of the baths at Kusatsu are taken so hot that special precautions must be adopted before one steps down into the water. These consist in winding cotton cloths round those parts of the body which are most sensitive, and in causing the body to perspire strongly before the bath is taken, which is done by the bathers with cries and shouts and with certain movements stirring the water in the basin with large heavy boards. They then all step down into the bath and up again simultaneously at a sign given by the physician sitting at the back of the bathing shed. Without this arrangement it would perhaps be difficult to get the patients to go into the bath, for agreeable it could not be, to judge from the grave faces of the bathers and the fire-red colour of their bodies when they come out.
The baths are under open sheds. Men and women all bathe in common, and in presence of both male and female spectators. They make their remarks without reserve on the diseases of the patients, even if they are of that sort about which one would not speak willingly even to his physician. Often the bath-basin is not fenced off in any way, except that it is protected from rain and sunshine by a roof resting on four posts. In such cases the bathers dress and undress in the street.
In consequence of the situation of Kusatsu at a height of 1050 metres above the sea, the winter there is very cold and windy. The town is then abandoned not only by the visitors to the baths, but also by most of the other inhabitants. Already, at the time of our visit, the number of bathers remaining was only inconsiderable. Even these were preparing to depart. During the second night that we passed at Kusatsu, our night's rest was disturbed by a loud noise from the next room. It was a visitor who was to leave the place the following morning, and who now celebrated his recovery with saki (rice-brandy) and string music.
The environs of Kusatsu are nearly uncultivated, though the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant. It consists partly of bamboo thickets, partly of a high rich grass, above which rise solitary pines, mixed with a few oaks or chestnuts.
On the 3rd October we continued our journey to the foot of Asamayama. The road was very bad, so that even the kago bearers had difficulty in getting along. It first ran across two valleys more than 300 feet deep, occupied with close, luxuriant, bushy thickets. We then came to an elevated plain of great extent covered with unmown grass, studded with beautiful oaks and chestnuts. The plain was not turned to any account, though thousands of the industrious population could find an abundant living there by tending cattle. Farther up the oaks and chestnuts were mixed with a few birches, resembling those at home, and we came next to complete deserts, where the ground consisted of lava blocks and lava gravel, scarcely covered by any grass, and yielding nourishment only to solitary pines. This continued to the place--Rokuriga-hara--where we were to pass the night, and from which the next day we were to ascend the summit of Asamayama.
Rokuriga-hara is situated at a height of 1270 metres above the sea. There was no inn here, nor any place inhabited all the year round, but only a large open shed. This was divided into two by a passage in the middle. We settled on one side of this, making our bed as well as we could on the raised floor, and protecting ourselves from the night air with coverings which our thoughtful host at Kusatsu had lent us. On the other side of the passage our kago bearers and guide passed the night crowding round a log fire made on a stone foundation in the middle of the floor. The kago bearers were protected from the very perceptible night cold only by thin cotton blouses. In order to warm them I ordered an abundant distribution of saki, a piece of generosity that did not cost very much, but which clearly won me the undivided admiration of all the coolies. They passed the greater part of the night without sleep, with song and jest, with their saki bottles and tobacco pipes. We slept well and warmly after partaking of an abundant supper of fowl and eggs, cooked in different ways by Kok-San with his usual talent and his usual variety of dishes.
We had been informed that at this place we would hear a constant noise from the neighbouring volcano, and that hurtful gases (probably carbonic acid) sometimes accumulated in such quantities in the neighbouring woods that men and horses would be suffocated if they spent the night there. We listened in vain for the noise, and did not observe any trace of such gases. All was as peaceful as if the glowing hearth in the interior of the earth was hundreds of miles away. But we did not require the evidence of the column of smoke which was seen to use from the mountain top, which formed the goal of our visit, or of the inhabitants who survived the latest eruption, to come to the conclusion that we were in the neighbourhood of an enormous, still active volcano. Everywhere round our resting-place lay heaps of small pieces of lava which had been thrown out of the volcano (so-called lapilli), and which had not yet had time to weather sufficiently to serve as an under-stratum for any vegetation, and a little from the hut there was a solidified lava stream of great depth.
Next day, the 4th October, we ascended the summit of the mountain. At first we travelled in kago over a valley filled with pretty close wood, then the journey was continued on foot up the steep volcanic cone, covered with small lava blocks and lapilli. The way was staked out with small heaps of stones raised at a distance of about 100 metres apart. Near the crater we found at one of these cairns a little Shinto shrine, built of sticks. Its sides were only half a metre in length. Our guide performed his devotions here. One of them had already at a stone cairn situated farther down with great seriousness made some conjurations with reference to my promise to make an extra distribution of red wine, if we got good weather at the top.
As on Vesuvius, we can also on Asamayama distinguish a large exterior crater, originating from some old eruption, but now almost completely filled up by a new volcanic cone, at whose top the present crater opens. This crater has a circumference of about two kilometres, the old crater, or what the old geologists called the elevation-crater, has been much larger. The volcano is still active. For it constantly throws out "smoke," consisting of watery vapour, sulphurous acid, and probably also carbonic acid. Occasionally a perceptible smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is observed. It is possible without difficulty to crawl to the edge of the crater and glance down into its interior. It is very deep. The walls are perpendicular, and at the bottom of the abyss there are to be seen several clefts from which vapours arise. In the same way "smoke" forces its way at some places at the edge of the crater through small imperceptible cracks in the mountain. Both on the border of the crater, on its sides and its bottom there is to be seen a yellow efflorescence, which at the places which I got at to examine it consisted of sulphur. The edge of the crater is solid rock, a little-weathered augiteandesite differing very much in its nature at different places. The same or similar rocks also project at several places at the old border of the crater, but the whole surface of the volcanic cone besides consists of small loose pieces of lava, without any trace of vegetation. Only at one place the brim of the old crater is covered with an open pine wood. The volcano has also small side craters, from which gases escape. The same coarse fantasy, which still prevails in the form of the hell-dogma among several of the world's most cultured peoples, has placed the home of those of the followers of Buddha who are doomed to eternal punishment in the glowing hearths in the interior of the mountain, to which these crater-openings lead; and that the heresies of the well-meaning Bishop Lindblom have not become generally prevalent in Japan is shown among other things by this, that many of these openings are said to be entrances to the "children's hell." Neither at the main crater nor at any of the side craters can any true lava streams be seen. Evidently the only things thrown out from them have been gases, volcanic ashes, and lapilli. On the other hand, extensive eruptions of lava have taken place at several points on the side of the mountain, though these places are now covered with volcanic ashes.
After having eaten our breakfast in a cleft so close to the smoking crater that the empty bottles could be thrown directly into the bottomless deeps, we commenced our return journey. At first we took the same way as during the ascent, but afterwards held off to the right, down a much steeper and more difficult path than we had traversed before. The mountain side had here a slope of nearly forty-five degrees, and consisted of a quite loose volcanic sand, not bound together by any vegetable carpet. It would therefore have been scarcely possible to ascend to the summit of the mountain this way, but we went rapidly downwards, often at a dizzy speed, but without other inconvenience than that one now and then fell flat and rolled head-foremost down the steep slopes, and that our shoes were completely torn to tatters by the angular lava gravel. Above the mountaintop the sky was clear of clouds, but between it and the surface of the earth there spread out a thick layer of cloud which seen from above resembled a boundless storm-tossed sea, full of foaming breakers. The extensive view we would otherwise have had of the neighbouring mountain ridges from the top of Asamayama was thus concealed. Only here and there an opening was formed in the cloud, resembling a sun-spot, through which we got a glimpse of the underlying landscape. When we came to the foot of the mountain we long followed a ridge, covered with greenery, formed of an immense stream of lava, which had issued from an opening in the mountain side now refilled. This had probably taken place during the tremendous eruption of 1783, when not only enormous lava-streams destroyed forests and villages at the foot of the mountain, but the whole of the neighbouring region between Oiwake and Usui-toge, previously fertile, was changed by an ash-rain into an extensive waste. Across this large plain, infertile and little cultivated, situated at a height of 980 metres above the sea, we went without a guide to the village Oiwake, where we lodged for the night at an inn by the side of the road Nakasendo, one of the cleanest and best kept of the many well-kept inns I saw during our journey in the interior of the country.
Hence I sent a messenger on foot to Takasaki to order a carriage to Tokio. A former samurai undertook for a payment of three yen, (about 12_s_) to carry the message. Oiwake is indeed situated on the great road Nakasendo, but it can here only with difficulty be traversed by carriages, because between this village and Takasaki it is necessary to go over the pass Usui-toge, where the road, though lowered considerably of late, rises to a height of 1200 metres. We therefore here used jinrikishas, a mode of conveyance very agreeable to tourists, which, though introduced only recently, has already spread to all parts of the country.
Every one with an open eye for the beauties of nature and interest in the life and manners of a foreign people, must find a journey in jinrikisha over Usui-toge pleasant in a high degree. The landscape here is extraordinarily beautiful, perhaps unmatched in the whole world. The road has been made here with great difficulty between wild, black, rocky masses, along deep clefts, whose sides are often covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. No fence protects the jinrikisha in its rapid progress down the mountains from the bottomless abysses by the wayside. A man must therefore not be weak in the nerves if he is to derive pleasure from the journey. He must rely on the coolie's keen eye and sure foot. On all sides one is surrounded by a confused mass of lofty shattered mountain tops, and deep down in the valleys mountain streams rush along, whose crystal-clear water is collected here and there into small lakes confined between heights covered with greenery. Now the traveller passes a dizzy abyss by a bridge of the most defective construction, now he sees a stream of water rushing down from an enormous height by the wayside. Thousands of foot-passengers, crowds of pilgrims, long rows of coolies, oxen and horses bearing heavy burdens meet the traveller, who during frequent rests at the foot of the steep slopes has an opportunity of studying the variegated life of the people. He is always surrounded by cheerful and friendly faces, and the pleasant impression is never disturbed by the expressions of coarseness in speech and behaviour which so often meet us in Europe.
It is not until the traveller has passed the mountain ridge and descended to a height of only 300 metres above the sea that the road becomes passable for a carriage. While we exchanged, not without regret, our clean, elegant jinrikishas for two inferior vehicles drawn by horses, I saw two men wandering from shop to shop, standing some moments at each place, ringing a bell and passing on when they were not attended to. On my inquiry as to what sort of people they were, I was informed that they were wandering players. For me of course they did not ring in vain. For a payment of fifty cents they were ready immediately to show in the street itself a specimen of their art. One of them put on a well-made mask, representing the head of a monster, with a movable jaw and terrible teeth. To the mask was fastened a cloak, in which the player wrapt himself during the representation. He then with great skill and supple tasteful gestures, which would have honoured a European danseuse, represented the monster now creeping forward fawningly, now rushing along to devour its prey. A numerous crowd of children collected around us. The small folks followed the representation with great glee, and gave life to the play, or rather formed its proper background, by the feigned tenor with which they fled when the monster approached with open mouth and rolling eyes, and the eagerness with which they again followed and mocked it when its back was turned.
In few countries are dramatic representations of all kinds so much thought of as in Japan. Playhouses are found even in small towns. The play is much frequented, and though the representations last the whole day, they are followed by the spectators with the liveliest interest. There are playbills as at home, and numerous writings on subjects relating to the theatre. Among the Japanese books which I bought, there was for instance a thick one, with innumerable woodcuts, devoted to showing how the first Japanese artists conceived the principal scenes in their roles, two volumes of playbills bound up together, &c.
The Japanese pieces indeed strike a European as childish and monstrous, but one must admire many praiseworthy traits in the play itself, for instance the naturalness with which the players often declaim monologues lasting for a quarter or half an hour. The extravagances which here shock us are perhaps on the whole not more absurd than the scenes of the opera of to-day, or the buskins, masks, and peculiar dresses, which the Greeks considered indispensable in the exhibition of then great dramatic masterpieces. When the Japanese have been able to appropriate what is good in European culture, the dramatic art ought to have a grand future before it among them, if the development now going on is carried out cautiously so that the peculiarities of the people are not too much effaced. For, in many departments, and not least in that of art, there is much to be found here which when properly developed will form a new and important addition to the culture of the West, of which we are so proud.
The large Japanese theatres, besides, often resemble the European ones in their interior arrangement. The partition between the stage and the space occupied by the spectators is the same as among us. Between the acts the former is concealed by a curtain. The stage is besides provided with painted scenes representing houses, woods, hills, &c., supported on wheels, so that a complete change of scene can be effected in a few moments. The music has the same place between the stage and the spectators as at home. The latter, as at home, are distributed partly in a gently rising amphitheatre, partly in several tiers of boxes rising one above another, the lowest tier being considered the principal one. The Japanese do not sit in the same way as we do. Neither the amphitheatre nor the boxes accordingly are provided with chairs or benches, but are divided into square compartments one or two feet deep, each intended for about four persons. They sit on cushions, squatting cross-legged in the common Japanese fashion. The compartments are divided by broad cross beams, which form the passages by which the spectators get to their places. During the play we saw attendants running about with tea, saki, tobacco pipes, and small braziers. For every one smokes during the acts, and places himself in his crib as comfortably as possible. The piece is followed with great attention, favourite actors and favourite passages being saluted with lively applause. Even women and children visit the theatre, and I have seen the former give their children suck without the least discomposure among thousands of spectators. Besides the plays intended for the public, there are given also a number of other dramatic representations, as society plays, peculiar family plays intended for the homes of the old feudal princes, spectacles got up for the Mikado, and some which have a half religious significance, &c.
On the evening of the 5th October we came to Takasaki, prepared to start immediately for Tokio. But though the messenger we sent had duly executed his commission, horses could not be procured before midnight. We passed the evening with our former host, who at our first visit received us so unwillingly, but now with great friendliness. We would easily have reconciled ourselves to the delay, for a Japanese small town such as Takasaki has much worth seeing to offer a European, but a great part of the time was wasted in fruitless attempts to get the horse-hirer to let us have the horses a few hours earlier. In spending time in long conversations mixed with civilities and bows the Japanese are masters. Of this bad habit, which still often makes the European desperate, it will not perhaps be long necessary to complain, for everything indicates that the Japanese too will soon be carried along at the endlessly roaring speed of the Steam Age.
When we had at last got horses we continued our journey, first in a carriage to Tokio, then by rail to Yokohama, arriving there on the afternoon of the 6th October. From this journey I shall only relate an incident which may form a little picture throwing light on life in Japan.
While we halted for a short time in the morning of the 6th October at a large inn by the roadside, we saw half a dozen young girls finishing their toilets in the inn-yard. In passing we may say, that a Japanese peasant girl, like girls in general, may be pretty or the reverse, but that she generally is, what cannot always be said of the peasant girls at home, cleanly and of attractive manners. They washed themselves at the stream of water in the inn-yard, smoothed their artistically dressed hair, which, however, had been but little disturbed by the cushions on which they had slept, and brushed their dazzlingly white teeth. Soap is not used for washing, but a cotton bag filled with bran. The teeth were brushed with a wooden pin, one end of which was changed by beating into a brush-like collection of wooden cords. The tooth-powder consisted of finely powdered shells and corals, and was kept in small, neat wooden boxes, which, along with tooth-brushes and small square bundles of a very strong and cheap paper, all clearly intended for the use of the peasants, were sold for a trifle in most of the innumerable shops along the road. For such stupid regulations as in former times in Europe rendered traffic in the country difficult, and often obliged the countryman to betake himself to the nearest town to buy some horse-shoes or a roll of wire, appear not to be found in Japan, on which account most of the peasants living on a country road seek a subsidiary way of making a living by trafficking in small articles in request among the country people.
Incidents of the sort referred to we had seen so many times before that on this occasion it would not have attracted any further attention on our part, if we had not thereby been reminded that we must look after our own exterior, before we could make our entrance into the capital of Japan. We therefore took from the carriage our basket with linen, shaving implements, and towels, settled down around the stream of water at which the girls stood, and immediately began to wash and shave ourselves. There was now general excitement. The girls ceased to go on with their own toilet, and crowded round us in a ring in order to see how Europeans behave in such cases, and to give us the assistance that might be required. Some ran laughing and bustling about, one on the top of another, in order immediately to procure us what we wanted, one held the mirror, another the shaving-brush, a third the soap, &c. Round them gathered other elder women, whose blackened teeth indicated that they were married. A little farther off stood men of all ages. Chance had here quite unexpectedly shown us a picture from folk-life of the most agreeable kind. This pleasant temper continued while we immediately after, in the presence of all, ate our breakfast in the porch of the ground-floor, surrounded by our former ministering spirits, now kneeling around us, continually bowing the head to the ground, laughing and chattering. The same fun went on when a little after I bought some living fresh-water fishes and put them in spirit, yet with the difference that the girls now, with some cries, to show their fear of handling the living animals--though fish-cleaning was one of their ordinary occupations--handed over to the men the trouble of taking the fishes and putting them into the spirit-jars. For a worm placed in spirit they feigned the greatest terror, notwithstanding its covering of spirit and glass, and ran shrieking away when any one suddenly brought the jar with the worm near their faces. It ought to be noted to the honour of the Japanese, that although we were by no means surrounded by any select circle, there was not heard during the whole time a single offensive word among the closely-packed spectators, a fact which gives us an idea of the excellent tone of society which prevails here, even among the lowest of the population, and which shows that the Japanese, although they have much to learn from the Europeans, ought not to imitate them in all. In Japan there is much that is good, old, and national to take note of, perhaps more than the Japanese at present have any idea of, and undoubtedly more than many of the European residents will allow.
[Footnote 379: On the contrary, we saw a number of beggars on the country roads in the neighbourhood of Yokohama. ]
[Footnote 380: Voyage de M. Golovin, Paris, 1818, i. p. 176. Golovin, who was captain in the Russian navy, passed the years 1811-13 in imprisonment in Japan. He and his comrades in misfortune were received with great friendliness by the people, and very well treated by the authorities, if we except the exceedingly tedious examinations to which they were subjected to extract from them the most minute particulars regarding Europe, and particularly Russia. ]
[Footnote 381: General Grant, as is well known, visited Japan in the autumn of 1879. He left Yokohama the day after the Vega anchored in its harbour. ]
[Footnote 382: According to the statement of the inhabitants, I had not time to visit the place. ]
Chapter XVIII
Farewell dinner at Yokohama--The Chinese in Japan--Voyage to Kobe--Purchase of Japanese Books--Journey by rail to Kioto --Biwa Lake and the Legend of its Origin--Dredging there-- Japanese Dancing-Girls--Kioto--The Imperial Palace--Temples --Swords and Sword-bearers--Shintoism and Buddhism-- The Porcelain Manufacture--Japanese Poetry--Feast in a Buddhist Temple--Sailing across the Inland Sea of Japan --Landing at Hirosami and Shimonoseki--Nagasaki--Excursion to Mogi--Collection of Fossil Plants--Departure from Japan.
The last days at Yokohama were taken up with farewell visits there and at Tokio. An afternoon's leisure during the last day I spent in the capital of Japan I employed in making an excursion in order to dredge from a Japanese boat in the river debouching at the town. The Japanese boats differ from the European in being propelled not by rowing but by sculling. They have usually a deck above the level of the water, which is dazzlingly white and laid with matting, like the rooms in a Japanese house. The dredging yielded a great number of Anodonta, large Paludina, and some small shells.
During our stay in Japan I requested Lieutenant Nordquist to make as complete a collection of the land and fresh-water crustacea of the country as the short time permitted. In consequence of the unusual poverty of the country in these animal forms the result was much smaller than we had hoped. During a preceding voyage to the Polar Sea I had assisted in making a collection of land crustacea on Renoe, an island north of the limit of trees in the outer archipelago of northern Norway. It is possible to collect there in a few hours as many annuals of this group as in fertile Japan in as many days. There are parts of Japan, covered with thick woods and thickets of bushes, where during a forenoon's excursion one can scarcely find a single crustacean, although the ground is full of deep, shady clefts in which masses of dried leaves are collected, and which therefore ought to be an exceedingly suitable haunt for land mollusca. The reason of this poverty ought perhaps to be sought in the want of chalk or basic calcareous rocks, which prevails in the parts of Japan which we visited.
After the Swedish-Dutch minister had further given us a splendid farewell dinner at the Grand Hotel, to which, as before, the Japanese minsters and the representatives of the foreign powers in Japan were invited, we at last weighed anchor on the 11th October to prosecute our voyage. At this dinner we saw for the first time the Chinese embassy which at the time visited Japan with the view of settling the troublesome Loo-Choo affair which threatened to lead to a war between the two great powers of Eastern Asia. The Chinese ambassadors were, as usual, two in number, being commissioned to watch one over the other. One of them laughed immoderately at all that was said during dinner, although he did not understand a word. According to what I was told by one who had much experience in the customs of the heavenly empire, he did this, not because he heard or understood anything worth laughing at, but because he considered it good manners to laugh.
Remarkable was the interest which the Chinese labourers settled at Yokohama took in our voyage, about which they appeared to have read something in their own or in the Japanese newspapers. When I sent one of the sailors ashore to execute a commission, and asked him how he could do that without any knowledge of the language, he replied, "There is no fear, I always meet with some Chinaman who speaks English and helps me." The Chinese not only always assisted our sailors as interpreters without remuneration, but accompanied them for hours, gave them good advice in making purchases, and expressed their sympathy with all that they must have suffered during our wintering in the high north. They were always cleanly, tall, and stately in their figures, and corresponded in no particular to the calumnious descriptions we so often read of this people in European and American writings.
From Yokohama the course was shaped for Kobe, one of the more considerable Japanese ports which have been opened to Europeans. Kobe is specially remarkable on account of its having railway communication with Osaka, the most important manufacturing town of Japan, and with Kioto, the ancient capital and seat of the Mikado's court for centuries.
I had already begun at Yokohama to buy Japanese books, particularly such as were printed before the opening of the ports to Europeans. In order to carry on this traffic with greater success, I had procured the assistance of a young Japanese very familiar with French, Mr. OKUSCHI, assistant in Dr. Geertz' chemico-technical laboratory at Yokohama. But because the supply of old books in this town, which a few years ago had been of little importance, was very limited, I had at first, in order to make purchases on a large scale, repeatedly sent Mr. Okuschi to Tokio, the seat of the former Shogun dynasty, and from that town, before the departure of the Vega from Yokohama, to Kioto, the former seat of learning in Japan. The object of the Vega's call at the port of Kobe was to fetch the considerable purchases made there by Mr. Okuschi[383]
Kobe, or Hiogo, as the old Japanese part of the town is called, is a city of about 40,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated at the entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan, i.e., the sound which separates the main island from the south islands, Shikoku and Kiushiu. Mountain ridges of considerable height here run along the sea-shore. Some of the houses of the European merchants are built on the lower slopes of these hills, with high, beautiful, forest-clad heights as a background, and a splendid view of the harbour in front. The Japanese part of the town consists, as usual, of small houses which, on the side next the street, are occupied mainly with sale or work-shops where the whole family lives all day. The streets have thus a very lively appearance, and offer the foreigner an endless variety of remarkable and instructive pictures from the life of the people. The European part of the town, on the other hand, is built with stately houses, some of which are situated on the street that runs along the shore. Here, among others, are to be found splendid European hotels, European clubs, counting-houses, shops, &c.
Not far from Kobe, and having railway communication with it, is Osaka, the largest manufacturing town of Japan, famed for its theatres and its dancing-girls. Unfortunately I had not time to visit it, for I started for the old capital, Kioto, a few hours after the Vega anchored, and after I had waited on the governor in order to procure the passport that is still required for travelling in the interior. He received me, thanks to a letter of introduction I had with me from one of the ministers at Tokio, in an exceedingly agreeable way. His reception-room was part of a large European stone house, the vestibule of which was tastefully fitted up in European style with a Brussels carpet gay with variegated colours. At our visit we were offered Japanese tea, as is customary everywhere in Japan, both in the palace of the Emperor and the cabin of the poor peasant. The Governor was, as all the higher officials in Japan now are, dressed like a European of distinction, but he could not speak any European language. He showed himself, however, to be much interested in our voyage, and immediately ordered an official in his court, who was well acquainted with English, Mr. YANIMOTO, to accompany me to Kioto.
We travelled thither by a railway constructed wholly in the European style. At Kioto my companion, at my special request, conducted me not to the European hotel there, but to a Japanese inn, remarkable as usual for cleanliness, for a numerous crowd of talkative female attendants, and for the extreme friendliness of the inn people to then guests as soon as they indicated, by taking off then boots at the door, that it was their intention not to break Japanese customs and usages in any offensive way. A calling card and a letter from Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine, which I sent from the hotel to the Governor of Kioto, procured me an adjutant No. 2, a young, cheerful, and talkative official, Mr. KOBA-YASCHI, whose eyes sparkled with intelligence and merry good humour. One would sooner have taken him for a highly-esteemed student president at some northern university, than for a Japanese official. It was already late in the day, so that before nightfall I had time only to take the bath which, at every Japanese inn not of too inferior a kind, is always at the traveller's call, and arrange the dreding excursion which, along with Lieut. Nordquist, I intended to make next day on Lake Biwa.
The road between Kioto and Biwa we travelled the following morning in jinrikishas. In a short time there will be communication between these two places by a railway constructed exclusively by native workmen and native engineers. It will be, and is intended to be, an actual Japanese railway. For a considerable distance it passes through a tunnel, which, however, as some of the Europeans at Kobe stated, might easily have been avoided "if the Japanese had not considered it desirable that Japan, too, should have a railway tunnel to show, as such are found both in Europe and America." It is probable, in any case, that the bends which would have been required if the tunnel was to be avoided, would have cost more by the additional length than the tunnel, and that therefore the procedure of the Japanese was better considered than their envious European neighbours would allow. There appears to prevail among the European residents in Japan a certain jealousy of the facility with which this country, till recently so far behind in an industrial respect, assimilates the skill in art and industry of the Europeans, and of the rapidity with which the people thereby make themselves independent of the wares of the foreign merchants.
When we reached Lake Biwa we were conducted by Mr. Koba-Yaschi to an inn close by the shore, with a splendid view of the southern part of the lake. We were shown into beautiful Japanese rooms, which had evidently been arranged for the reception of Europeans, and in which accordingly some tables and chairs had been placed. On the tables we found, on our arrival, bowls, with fruit and confections, Japanese tea, and braziers. The walls were formed partly of tastefully gilt paper panels ornamented with mottoes, reminding visitors of the splendid view.
A whole day of the short time which was allowed me to study the remarkable things of Kioto I devoted to Lake Biwa, because lakes are exceedingly uncommon in the south, for they occur only in the countries which have either been covered with glaciers in the most recent geological periods, or, in consequence of the action of volcanic forces, have been the scene of violent disturbances of the surface of the earth. I believed that Lake Biwa would form an exception to this, but I was probably mistaken, for tradition relates that this lake was formed in a single night at the same time that the high volcanic cone of Fusiyama was elevated. This tradition, in its general outline, corresponds so closely with the teaching of geology, that scarcely any geologist will doubt its truth.
After our arrival at the inn we had to wait a very long time for the steamer I had ordered. On this account I thoughtlessly enough broke out in reproaches on my excellent Japanese adjutants, who, however, received my hard words only with friendly smiles, which increased still further my impatience at the loss of time which was thus occasioned. It was not until far on in the day, when I was already out dredging from a small steamer, that I was informed as to the cause of the delay. The Biwa Steamship Company had, at the request of the Governor, intended to place at my disposal a very large boat well provided with coal, but after taking the coal on board it had sunk so deep that it grounded in the mud of the harbour. We had already got far out with the little steamer when the large one at last got off. I was now obliged to exchange vessels in order to be received "in a more honourable way." It was not until this took place that I was informed that I was guest and not master, on which account I was obliged to employ the rest of the afternoon in excusing my former violent behaviour, in which, with the help of friendly words, beer, and red wine, I succeeded pretty well, to judge by the mirth which soon began to prevail among my now very numerous Japanese companions.
On the little steamer I had ordered two of my crew whom I had brought with me from the Vega to prepare a meal for the Japanese and ourselves. In this way the dinner that had been arranged for us, without my knowledge, became superfluous. I was obliged instead to receive as a gift the provisions and liquors purchased for the dinner, consisting of fowls, eggs, potatoes, red wine and beer, giving at the same time a receipt as a matter of form.
During our excursion on the lake we met with various boats laden with sea-weed, which had been taken up from the bottom of the lake to be used as manure for the neighbouring cultivated fields. Partly among these algae, partly by dredging, Lieut. Nordquist collected various interesting fresh-water crustacea (Paludina, Melania, Unio, Planorbis &c.,) several sorts of shrimps (a Hippolyte) small fishes, &c. Lake Biwa abounds in fish, and harbours besides a large clumsily-formed species of lizard. In order to make further collections of the animal forms occurring there, Lieut. Nordquist remained at the lake till next day. I, on the other hand, went immediately back to Kioto, arriving there in the evening after nightfall.
After having eaten, along with my two Japanese companions, an unexceptionable European dinner at the inn of the town, kept by Japanese, but arranged in European style, we paid a visit to a company of Japanese dancing-girls.
Kioto competes with Osaka for the honour of having the prettiest dancing-girls. These form a distinct class of young girls, marked by a peculiar variegated dress. They wear besides a peculiar hair-ornament, are much painted, and have their lips coloured black and gold. At the dancing places of greatest note a European is not received, unless he has with him a known native who answers for his courteous behaviour. After taking off his shoes on entering, the visitor is introduced to a separate room with its floor covered with matting and its walls ornamented with Japanese drawings and mottoes, but without other furniture. A small square cushion is given to each of the guests. After they have settled themselves in Japanese fashion, that is to say, squatting cross-legged, pipes and tea are brought in, on which a whole crowd of young girls come in and, chatting pleasantly, settle themselves around the guests, observing all the while complete decency even according to the most exacting European ideas. There is not to be seen here any trace of the effrontery and coarseness which are generally to be found in similar places in Europe. One would almost believe that he was among a crowd of school-girls who had given the sour moral lessons of their governess the slip, and were thinking of nothing else than innocently gossiping away some hours. After a while the dance begins, accompanied by very monotonous music and singing. The slow movements of the legs and arms of the dancers remind us of certain slow and demure scenes from European ballets. There is nothing indecent in this dance, but we learn that there are other dances wilder and less decorous.
The dancing-girls are recruited exclusively from the poorer classes, pretty young girls, to help their parents or to earn some styvers for themselves, selling themselves for a certain time to the owners of the dancing-places, and when the time agreed upon has come to an end returning to their homes, where notwithstanding this they marry without difficulty. All the dancing-girls therefore are young, many of them pretty even according to European ideas, though their appearance is destroyed in our eyes by the tasteless way in which they paint themselves and colour their lips. Unfortunately I had not time to avail myself of the opportunity which Kioto offers the foreigner of judging with certainty regarding the Japanese taste in female beauty. For here, as at various other Japanese towns, there are a number of girls who have been officially selected as the most beautiful among the youth of the place. The Japanese may visit them for a certain payment, but to Europeans they do not show themselves willingly, and only for a large sum. When this takes place at any time, it is only a dumb show for a few moments, during which no words are exchanged.
The Governor had promised to carry me round next day to see whatever was remarkable in the town. I was not much delighted at this, because I feared that the whole day would be taken up with inspecting the whole or half-European public offices and schools, which had not the slightest interest for me. My fear however was quite unjustified. The Governor was a man of genius, who, according to the statements of my companions, was reckoned among the first of the contemporary poets of Japan. He immediately declared that he supposed that the new public offices and schools would interest me much less than the old palaces, temples, porcelain and faience manufactories of the town, and that he therefore intended to employ the day I spent under his guidance in showing me the latter.
We made a beginning with the old imperial palace Gosho, the most splendid dwelling of Old Japan. It is not however very grand according to European ideas. A very extensive space of ground is here covered with a number of one-story wooden houses, intended for the Emperor, the imperial family, and their suite. The buildings are, like all Japanese houses, divided by movable panels into a number of rooms, richly provided with paintings and gilded ornamentation, but otherwise without a trace of furniture. For the palace now stands uninhabited since the Mikado overthrew the Shogun dynasty and removed to Tokio. It already gives a striking picture of the change which has taken place in the land. Only the imperial family and the great men of the country were formerly permitted to enter the sacred precincts of Gosho. Now it stands open to every curious native or foreigner and it has even as an exhibition building been already pressed into the service of industry. Alongside the large buildings there are several small ones, of which one was intended to protect the Emperor-deity during earthquakes, the others formed play-places for the company of grown children who were then permitted to govern the country.
Much more remarkable and instructive than the now deserted imperial palace are the numerous temples at Kioto, of which we visited several. We were generally received by the priests in a large vestibule, whose floor was covered with a fine woollen carpet and was provided with tables and chairs of European patterns. The priests first offered us Japanese tea, cigars, and sweetmeats, then we examined some valuable articles exhibited in the room, consisting of bronzes, works in the noble metals, splendid old lacquer work, and a number of famous swords dedicated to the temple. These were the only things that our freethinking Governor treated with reverence, for the rest neither the priests nor their reliques seemed to inspire him with any particular respect.
When a valuable Japanese sword is exhibited one touches neither the hilt nor the scabbard, and of course still less the blade, with the bare hand, but it is taken hold of either with a gloved hand, or with the hand with a handkerchief or piece of cloth wrapped round it. The blade is only half bared, the steel setting is looked at against the light and admired; on the often exceedingly valuable blades which are not mounted, but only provided with a wooden case to protect them from rust, the maker's mark is examined, and so on. As among us in former times, the swordsmith's is the only handicraft which in old times was held in high esteem in Japan, and immense sums were often paid for sword-blades forged by famous masters of the art. Among old Japanese writings are to be found many works specially treating of the making of weapons. But since the swordsmen (samurai) have now been forbidden to show themselves armed, old Japanese swords are sold in all the towns by hundreds and thousands, often for a trifle. During our stay in the country I purchased for a comparatively limited sum a fine collection of such weapons. Even those who cannot appreciate the artistic forging of the blade, the steel-setting, and tempering, must admire the exceedingly tasteful casting and embossing of the ornamentation, especially of the guard-plates of the sword. They are often veritable works of art, unsurpassed in style and execution.
It is not very many years ago since the men who belonged to the samurai class never showed themselves abroad without being armed with two swords. Even schoolboys went armed to the first European schools that were established in the country. This gave occasion to several acts of violence during the time which succeeded the opening of the ports, for which reason the European ambassadors some years after requested that carrying the sword in time of peace should be prohibited. To this the Japanese government answered that it would make short work with the minister who should publish such a prohibition. Soon after, however, it gave permission to those who desired it to go without weapons, and the carrying of arms soon became so unfashionable that one of the authorities did dare at last to issue a distinct prohibition of it. During our stay in Japan, accordingly, we did not see a single man armed with the two swords formerly in use.
After we had seen and admired the treasures in the temple vestibule, we visited the temple itself. This is always of wood, richly ornamented with carvings and gilding. If it is dedicated to Shinto, there are no images in it, and very few ornaments, if we except a mirror and a large locked press with the doors smashed in, which sometimes occupies the wall opposite the entrance, and in which, as I have already stated, the spirit of the deity is said to dwell. The Shinto temples are in general poor. Many are so inconsiderable as to look almost like dovecotes. They are often completely deserted, so that it is difficult to discover them among the magnificent trees by which they were surrounded. The entrance to the temple is indicated by a gate (torryi) of wood, stone, or copper, and here and there are ropes, stretched over the way, to which written prayers and vows are affixed.
Even those who have long studied Japan and its literature have very little knowledge of the inner essence of Shintoism. This religion is considered by some a pure deism, by others a belief with political aims, the followers of which worship the departed heroes of the country. Of a developed morality this religion is wholly devoid. In the same way it appears to be uncertain whether Shintoism is a survival of the original religion of the country or whether it has been brought from abroad.
Buddhism was introduced from China by Corea. Its temples are more ornamented than the Shinto temples, and contain images of deities, bells, drums, holy books, and a great quantity of altar ornaments. The transmigration of souls, and rewards and punishments in a life after this, are doctrines of Buddhism. Outside the temples proper there are to be found in many places large or small images in stone or bronze of the deities of Buddha. The largest of these consist of colossal statues in bronze (Daibutsu), representing Buddha in a sitting position, and themselves forming the screen to a temple with smaller images. A similar statue is also to be found at Kamakura, another at Tokio, a third at Nara near Kioto, and so on. Some have of late years been sold for the value of the metal, one has in this way been brought to London, and is now exhibited in the Kensington Museum. The metal of the statues consists of an alloy of copper with tin and a little gold, the last named constituent giving rise to the report that their value is very considerable. To give an idea of the size of some Daibutsu statues it may be mentioned that the one at Nara is fifty-three and a half feet high, and that one can crawl into the head through the nose orifices.
Nearly all the Daibutsu images are made after nearly the same design, which has been improved from generation to generation until the countenance of the image has received a stamp of benevolence, calm, and majesty, which has probably never been surpassed by the productions of western art. Daibutsu images evidently stand in the same relation to the works of private sculptors as folk-poetry to that of individual bards.
As I have before pointed out, the Western taste for the gigantic was not prevalent in Old Japan. It was evidently elegance and neatness, not grandeur, that formed the object towards which the efforts of the artist, the architect, and the gardener were directed. Only the Daibutsu images, some bells, and other instruments of worship form exceptions to this. During our excursion at Kioto we passed an inclosure where the walls were built of blocks of stone so colossal, that it was difficult to comprehend how it had been possible to lift and move them with the means that were at the disposal of the Japanese in former times. In the neighbourhood of that place there was a grave, probably the only one of its kind. It is described in the following way in an account of the curiosities of Kioto written by a native:--
"Mimisuka, or the grave of the noses and the ears, was erected by Hideyoshi Taiko, who lived about A.D. 1590. When the military chiefs of this famous man attacked Corea with a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, he gave orders that they should bring home and show him all the ears and noses of the enemies who were killed in the contest, for it was an old practice in Japan to cut off the enemies' heads to show them to the king or the commander of the army. But it was now impossible to bring the heads of the dead Corean warriors to Japan, because the distance was too great. Hideyoshi therefore gave the above order, and the ears and noses, which were brought to Japan, were buried together at that place. The grave is 730 feet in circumference, and is 30 feet high."
Kioto is one of the principal places for the manufacture of faience, porcelain, and cloisonne. The productions of the ceramic art are, as is well-known, distinguished by their tasteful forms and beautiful colours, and are highly valued by connoisseurs, on which account they are exported on a large scale to Europe and America. The works are numerous and small, and are owned for the most part by families that for a long succession of generations have devoted themselves to the same occupation. The articles are burned in very small furnaces, and are commonly sold in a shop which is close to the place where they are made. The making of porcelain in Japan, therefore, bears the stamp rather of handicraft than of manufacturing industry. The wares gain thereby in respect of art to an almost incredible degree. They have the same relation to the productions of the great European manufactories that the drawing of an artist has to a showily coloured lithograph. But the price is high in proportion, and the Japanese porcelain is too dear for every-day use even in its own country. Nearly all the large sets of table porcelain that I saw in Japan were, therefore, ordered from abroad. The cups which the natives themselves use for rice, tea, and saki are, however, of native manufacture; but even in a well-provided Japanese household there is seldom so much porcelain as would be required for a proper coffee-party at home.
In the evening the Governor had invited us to a dinner, which was given in a hall belonging to a literary society in the town. The rooms were partly furnished in European style with tables, chairs, Brussels carpets, &c. The dinner was European in the arrangement of dishes, wines, and speeches. The dishes and wines were abundant and in great variety. The company were very merry, and the host appeared to be greatly pleased, when I mentioned that at one of the places which I had seen that day I saw a wall adorned by a motto of his composition. He immediately promised to write a similar one on me with reference to my visit to the town, and when a few moments after he had the first line ready, he invited his Japanese guests to write the second. They tried for a good while with merry jests to hit upon some suitable conclusion, but in vain. Early the following morning Mr. Koba-Yaschi came to me, bringing with him a broad strip of silk on which the following was pencilled in bold, nobly-formed characters:
Umi hara-no-hate-made Akiva-Sumi-watare,
which when translated runs thus:
"As far as the sea extends The autumn moon spreads her beneficent light."
According to the explanation which I received the piece points out that the autumn moon spreads her beneficent rays as far as to that place in the high north where we wintered. After the above-quoted verse came the following addition in Japanese: "Written by Machimura Masanavo, Governor of Kioto-Fu, to Professor Nordenskioeld, on the occasion of a dinner given to him during the autumn of 1879." The whole besides was signed with the author's common, as well as his poetical, name, and had his seal attached. His poetical name was RIO-SAN, which may be literally translated "Dragon-Mountain."
The poetry of the Japanese is so unlike that of the Western nations that we find it difficult to comprehend the productions of the Japanese poets. Perhaps they ought more correctly to be called poetical mottoes. They play a great part in the intellectual life of the Japanese. Their authors are highly esteemed, and even in the homes of the poorer classes the walls are often ornamented with strips of silk or paper on which poems are written in large, bold, pencil characters. Among the books I brought home with me are many which contain collections of the writings of private poets and poetesses, or selections from the most famous of the productions of Japanese literature in this department. A roll of drawings which turned up very often represents the sorrowful fate of a famous poetess. First of all she is depicted as a representative Japanese beauty, blooming with youth and grace, then she is represented in different stages of decay, then as dead, then as a half-decayed corpse torn asunder by ravens, and finally as a heap of bones. The series ends with a cherry-tree in splendid bloom, into which the heroine, after her body had passed through all the stages of annihilation, has been changed. The cherry-tree in blossom is considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions are often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after hour is passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour of the tree. Unfortunately I was so late in getting the explanation of the beautiful poetical idea that ran through this series of pictures, some of which were executed with execrable truth to nature, that I missed the opportunity of purchasing it.
I was obliged to leave Kioto too early in order to be present at a fete, which was given to us at Kobe by the Japanese, Europeans, and Chinese who were interested in our voyage. The entertainment was held in a Buddhist temple without the town, and was very pleasant and agreeable. The Japanese did not seem at all to consider that their temple was desecrated by such an arrangement. In the course of the afternoon for instance there came several pilgrims to the temple. I observed them carefully, and could not mark in their countenances any trace of displeasure at a number of foreigners feasting in the beautiful temple grove whither they had come on pilgrimage. They appeared rather to consider that they had come to the goal of their wanderings at a fortunate moment, and therefore gladly accepted the refreshments that were offered them.
On the morning of the 18th October the Vega again weighed anchor, to proceed on her voyage. The course was shaped through the Inland Sea of Japan for Nagasaki. When I requested of the Governor of Kobe permission to land at two places on the way, he not only immediately granted my request, but also sent on the Vega the same English-speaking official from his court who had before attended me to Kioto. The weather was clear and fine, so that we had a good opportunity of admiring the magnificent environs of the Inland Sea. They resemble much the landscape in a northern archipelago. The views here are however more monotonous in consequence of their being less variety in the contours of the mountains. Here as at Kobe the hills consist mainly of a species of granite which is exposed to weathering on so large a scale that the hard rocks are nearly everywhere decomposed into a yellow sand unfavourable for vegetation. The splendid wild granite cliffs of the north accordingly are absent here. All the hill-tops are evenly rounded, and everywhere, except where there has been a sand-slip, covered with a rich vegetation, which in consequence of the evenness of height of the trees gives little variety to the landscape, which otherwise is among the most beautiful on the globe.
We landed at two places, on the first occasion at Hirosami. Here some fishermens' cabins and some peasants' houses formed a little village at the foot of a high, much-weathered granite ridge. The burying-place was situated near one of the houses, close to the shore. On an area of some hundred square yards there were numerous gravestones, some upright, some fallen. Some were ornamented with fresh flowers, at one was a Shinto shrine of wooden pins, at another stood a bowl with rice and a small saki bottle. Our zoologists here made a pretty rich collection of littoral animals, among which may be mentioned a cuttle-fish which had crept down amongst the wet sand, an animal that is industriously searched for and eaten by the natives. Among the cultivated plants we saw here, as many times before in the high-lying parts of the country, an old acquaintance from home, namely buckwheat.
The second time the Vega anchored at a peasant village right opposite Shimonoseki. When we landed there came an official on board, courteously declaring that we had no right to land at that place. But he was immediately satisfied and made no more difficulties when he was informed that we had the permission of the Governor, and that instead of the usual passport an official from Kobe accompanied the vessel. Shimonoseki has a melancholy reputation in European-Japanese history from the deeds of violence done here by a united English, French, Dutch, and American fleet of seventeen vessels on the 4th and 5th September, 1864, in order to compel the Japanese to open the sound to foreigners, and the unreasonably heavy compensation which after the victory was won they demanded from the conquered. Although only fifteen years have passed since this occurred, there appears to be no trace of bitter feeling towards Europeans among the inhabitants of the region. At least we were received at the village in the neighbourhood of which we landed with extraordinary kindness. The village was situated at the foot of a rocky ridge, and consisted of a number of houses arranged in a row along a single street, the fronts of the houses being as usual occupied as shops, places for selling saki, and workshops for home industry. The only remarkable things besides that the village had to offer consisted of a Shinto temple surrounded by beautiful trees and a considerable salt-work, which consisted of extensive, shallow, well-planned ponds now nearly dry, into which the sea-water is admitted in order to evaporate, and from which the condensed salt liquid is afterwards drawn into salt-pans in order that the evaporation may be completed. It was remarkable to observe that several crustacea throve exceedingly well in the very strong brine.
On the surrounding hills we saw thickets of the Japanese wax tree, Rhus succedaneus. The wax is pressed out of the berries of this bush with the help of heat. It is used on a large scale in making the lights which the natives themselves burn, and is exported bleached and refined to Europe, where it is sometimes used in the manufacture of lights. Now, however, these wax lights are increasingly superseded by American kerosene oil. The price has fallen so much that the preparation of vegetable wax is now said scarcely to yield a profit.[384]
We left this place next morning, and on the 21st October the Vega anchored in the harbour of Nagasaki. My principal intention in visiting this place was to collect fossil plants, which I supposed would be found at the Takasima coal-mine, or in the neighbourhood of the coal-field. In order to find out the locality without delay, I reckoned on the fondness of the Japanese for collecting remarkable objects of all kinds from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. I therefore hoped to find in some of the shops where old bronzes, porcelain, weapons, &c., were offered for sale, fossil plants from the neighbourhood, with the locality given. The first day, therefore, I ran about to all the dealers in curiosities, but without success. At last one of the Japanese with whom I conversed told me that an exhibition of the products of nature and art in the region was being arranged, and that among the objects exhibited I might possibly find what I sought for.
Of course I immediately availed myself of the opportunity to see one of the many Japanese local exhibitions of which I had heard so much. It was yet in disorder, but I was, at all events, willingly admitted, and thus had an opportunity of seeing much that was instructive to me, especially a collection of rocks from the neighbourhood. Among these I discovered at last, to my great satisfaction, some beautiful fossil plants from Mogi, a place not far from Nagasaki.
Immediately the following morning I started for Mogi, accompanied by the Japanese attendant I had with me from Kobe, and by another adjutant given me by the very obliging governor of Nagasaki. We were to travel across the hills on horseback. I was accompanied, besides my Japanese assistants and a man from the Vega, all on horseback, by a number of coolies carrying provisions and other equipment. The Governor had lent me his own horse, which was considered by the Japanese something quite grand. It was a yellowish-brown stallion, not particularly large, but very fine, resembling a Norwegian horse, very gentle and sure-footed. The latter quality was also quite necessary, for the journey began with a ride up a hundred smooth and not very convenient stone steps. Farther on, too, the road, which was exceedingly narrow and often paved with smooth stones, went repeatedly up and down such stairs, not very suitable for a man on horseback, and close to the edge of precipices several hundred feet deep, where a single false step would have cost both the horse and its rider their lives. But as has been said, our horses were sure-footed and sure-eyed, and the riders took care in passing such places not to pull the reins.
None of the mountain regions I have seen in Japan are so well cultivated as the environs of Nagasaki. Every place that is somewhat level, though only several hundred square yards in extent, is used for growing some of the innumerable cultivated plants of the country, principally rice but as such easily cultivated places occur in only limited numbers, the inhabitants have by industry and hard labour changed the steep slopes of the mountains into a succession of level terraces rising one above the other, all carefully watered by irrigating conduits.
Mogi is a considerable fishing village lying at the seaside twenty kilometres south of Nagasaki in a right line, on the other side of a peninsula occupied by lava beds and volcanic tuffs, which projects from the island Kiushiu, which at that place is nearly cut asunder by deep fjords. No European lives at the place, and of course there is no European inn there. But we got lodgings in the house of one of the principal or richest men in the village, a maker and seller of saki, or as we would call him in Swedish, a brandy distiller and publican. Here we were received in a very friendly manner, in clean and elegant rooms, and were waited on by the young and very pretty daughter of our host at the head of a number of other female attendants. It may be supposed that our place of entertainment had no resemblance to a public-house in Sweden. We did not witness here the tipsy behaviour of some human wrecks, and as little some other incidents which might have reminded us of public-house life in Europe. All went on in the distillery and the public-house as calmly and quietly as the work in the house of a well-to-do country squire in Sweden who does not swear and is not quarrelsome.
Saki is a liquor made by fermenting and distilling rice. It is very variable in taste and strength, sometimes resembling inferior Rhine wine, sometimes more like weak grain brandy. Along with saki our host also manufactured vinegar, which was made from rice and saki residues, which with the addition of some other vegetable substances were allowed to stand and acidify in large jars ranged in rows in the yard.
When my arrival became known I was visited by the principal men of the village. We were soon good friends by the help of a friendly reception, cigars and red wine. Among them the physician of the village was especially of great use to me. As soon as he became aware of the occasion of my visit he stated that such fossils as I was in search of did indeed occur in the region, but that they were only accessible at low water. I immediately visited the place with the physician and my companions from Nagasaki, and soon discovered several strata containing the finest fossil plants one could desire. During this and the following day I made a rich collection, partly with the assistance of a numerous crowd of children who zealously helped me in collecting. They were partly boys and partly girls, the latter always having a little one on their backs. These little children were generally quite bare-headed. Notwithstanding this they slept with the crown of the head exposed to the hottest sun-bath on the backs of their bustling sisters, who jumped lightly and securely over stocks and stones, and never appeared to have any idea that the burdens on their backs were at all unpleasant or troublesome.
According to Dr. A.G. NATHORST'S examination, the fossil plants which I brought home from this place belong to the more recent Tertiary formation. Our distinguished and acute vegetable paleontologist fixes attention on the point, that we would have expected to find here a fossil flora allied to the recent South Japanese, which is considered to be derived from a Tertiary flora which closely resembles it. There is, however, no such correspondence, for impressions of ferns are almost completely wanting at Mogi, and even of pines there is only a single leaf-bearing variety which closely resembles the Spitzbergen form of Sequoia Langsdorfii, Brag. On the other hand, there are met with, in great abundance, the leaves of a species of beech nearly allied to the red beech of America, Fagus ferruginea, Ait., but not resembling the recent Japanese varieties of the same family. There were found, besides, leaves of Quercus, Juglans, Populus, Myrica, Salix, Zelkova, Liquidambar, Acer, Prunus, Tilia, &c., resembling leaves of recent types from the forests of Japan, from the forest flora of America, or from the temperate flora of the Himalayas. But as the place where they were found is situated at the sea-shore, quite close to the southern extremity of Japan, it is singular that the tropical or sub-tropical elements of the flora of Japan are here wanting. From this Dr. Nathorst draws the conclusion that these are not, as has been hitherto supposed, the remains of a flora originating in Japan, but that they have since migrated thither from a former continent situated further to the south, which has since disappeared. Dr. Nathorst's examination is not yet completed, but even if this were the case, want of space would not permit me to treat of this point at greater length. I cannot, however, omit to mention that it was highly agreeable to be able to connect with the memory of the Vega expedition at least a small contribution from more southerly lands to vegetable palaeontology, a branch of knowledge to which our preceding Arctic expeditions yielded new additions of such importance through the fossil herbaria from luxuriant ancient forests which they brought to light from the ice-covered cliffs of Spitzbergen and from the basalt-covered sandstones and schists of the Noui-soak Peninsula in Greenland, now so bleak.
After our return from Mogi I made an excursion to the coal-mine at Takasami, situated on an island some kilometres from the town. Even here I succeeded in bringing together some further contributions to the former flora of the region.
After the inhabitants of Nagasaki, too, had given us a grand parting feast, at which speeches were spoken in Japanese, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Danish, and Swedish, a proof of the mixture of nationalities which prevailed there, the Vega again weighed anchor on the 27th October, in order to continue her voyage. We now left Japan to commence in earnest our return, and on our departure we were saluted by the crews of two English gun-boats anchored in the harbour, the Hornet and the Sylvia, manning the yards and bulwarks. It was natural that the hour of departure, after fifteen months' absence from home, should be looked forward to with joy. But our joy was mixed with a regretful feeling that we were so soon compelled to leave--without the hope of ever returning--the magnificent country and noble people among whom a development is now going on which probably will not only give a new awakening to the old cultured races of Eastern Asia, but will also prepare a new soil for European science, industry, and art. It is difficult to foresee what new undreamed-of blossoms and fruit this soil will yield. But the Europeans are perhaps much mistaken who believe that the question here is only that of clothing an Asiatic feudal state in a modern European dress. Rather the day appears to me to dawn of a time in which the countries round the Mediterranean of eastern Asia will come to play a great part in the further development of the human race.
[Footnote 383: The number of the works which the collection of Japanese books contains is somewhat over a thousand. The number of volumes amounts to five or six thousand, most of the volumes, however, are not larger than one of our books of a hundred pages. So far as can be judged by the Japanese titles, which are often little distinctive, the works may be distributed among the various branches of knowledge in the following way:
Number of Works
History 176 On Buddhism and Education 161 On Shintoism 38 On Christianity (printed in 1715) 1 Manners and Customs 33 The Drama 13 Laws 5 Politics, Political argumentative writings, partly new and privately printed against the recent statues 24 Poetry and Prose fiction 137 Heraldry, Antiquities, Ceremonies 27 The Art of War and the Use of Weapons 41 Chess 1 Coining 4 Dictionaries, Grammars 18 Geography, Maps 76 Natural History 68 The Science of Medicine 13 Arithmetic, Astronomy, Astrology 39 Handicrafts, Agriculture 43 Notebooks 73 The art of making bouquets (Horticulture?) 16 Bibliography 9 Various 20 ----- Total 1036 ]
[Footnote 384: Further information on this point is given by Henry Gribble in "The Preparation of Vegetable Wax" (Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. iii. part. i. p. 94. Yokohama, 1875). ]