or cotton. The former
appears to be very abundant, as rich dresses of it are worn even by
the common soldiers on festive days; and it may be seen on people of
all ranks even in poor towns. The fabrics are at least equal to those
of China. The cotton of Japan seems to be of the same kind as that of
our West Indian colonies. It furnishes the ordinary dress of the great
mass of the people, and also serves all the other purposes for which
we employ wool, flax, furs, and feathers. The culture of it is, of
course, very extensive; but the fabrics are all coarse: Golownin could
hardly make himself believe that his muslin cravat was of this
material. There is some hemp, which is manufactured into cloth for
sails, &c.; but cables and ropes, very inferior to ours, are made from
the bark of a tree called kadyz. This bark likewise supplies materials
for thread, lamp-wicks, writing-paper, and the coarse paper used for
pocket-handkerchiefs.

There is no lack of fruit-trees, as the orange, lemon, peach, plum,
fig, chestnut, and apple; but the vine yields only a small, sour
grape, perhaps for want of culture. Timber-trees grow only in the
mountainous districts, which are unfit for cultivation. Camphor is
produced abundantly in the south, and large quantities of it are
exported by the Dutch and Chinese. The celebrated varnish of Japan,
drawn from a tree called silz, is so plentiful, that it is used for
lacquering the most ordinary utensils. Its natural colour is white,
but it assumes any that is given to it by mixture. The best varnished
vessels reflect the face as in a mirror, and hot water may be poured
into them without occasioning the least smell.

The chief domestic animals are horses and oxen for draught; cats and
dogs are kept for the same uses as with us; and swine furnish food to
the few sects who eat flesh. Sheep and goats seem to be quite unknown:
the Russian captives had to make drawings of the former, to convey
some idea of the origin of wool.

There are considerable mines of gold and silver in several parts of
the empire, but the government does not permit them to be all worked,
for fear of depreciating the value of these metals. They supply, with
copper, the material of the currency, and are also liberally used in
the decoration of public buildings, and in the domestic utensils of
the wealthy. There is a sufficiency of quicksilver, lead, and tin, for
the wants of the country; and one island is entirely covered with
su