d, while close at hand are the charming, villa-like residences
of the European settlers. Towards Mississippi Bay, as it is called,
numerous native gardens are to be seen, with cultivated fields of
millet, cotton, rice, and buckwheat. On getting nearer to them, one
discovers sweet potatoes, egg-plants, and a queer vegetable called the
daicum, of which great use is made by the people. It resembles an
elongated turnip, is about as large round as one's wrist, and milk
white. On the path leading round the base of the bluff were many pretty
wild-flowers, among which the blooming trefoil and the harebell were
seen intermingled with a large and handsome species of daisy. The
starwort, a great favorite with the Japanese, was met in abundance. It
will be remembered that this flower forms part of the Mikado's arms. It
was November, but the winter sleep of the flowers is brief here, and
there are said to be no days in the year when a pretty bouquet may not
be gathered in the open air. Ferns burst forth in abundance about the
bluff, and so great is the variety, that of this special plant, one is
constantly tempted to form a collection. Here and there among the
undergrowth were patches of soft, pea-green moss, of a velvety texture,
that no cunning of the loom can equal.

There is a smart, business-like aspect to everything in Yokohama; the
impression upon the stranger is that he is in a wide-awake community.
The first business of a traveler upon arriving in a new country is not
to look up its history, nor to study its geography or political economy.
He should be at least grounded in these already; he follows his natural
instincts, guided by curiosity, shrewdly watching the out-door life
about him, the dress of the people, the architecture of the houses,
modes of conveyance, mechanical operations, the fruits, flowers, and
shop-windows, and especially the manners of the women, their status as
it regards treatment, occupation, and the respect accorded to them.
Nothing is so sure a keynote or test of civilization and progress as
this. We do not look to see women receive, even in Europe, much less in
the East, such chivalric deference and respect as are shown to them in
America, but the nearer any people imitate us in this respect, the more
advanced will they be found in the other refined amenities of social
life.

In this commercial capital of Japan everything struck us as curious,
every fresh step afforded increased novelty, every new