which catches the rays of the
rising sun at the dawn of day.

Singularly cold and pale the holy mountain stands out against the dark
blue sky as we steer out again to sea in the moonlight night. It is our
last night on the long sea voyage from Bombay. Close to starboard we
have Oshima, the "great island," an active volcano with thin vapour
floating above its flat summit; Japan has more than a hundred extinct
and a score of still active volcanoes, and the country is also visited
by frequent earthquakes. On an average 1200 are counted in the year,
most of them, however, quite insignificant. Now and then, however, they
are very destructive, carrying off thousands of victims, and it is on
account of the earthquakes that the Japanese build their houses of wood
and make them low.

In the early morning the _Tenyo Maru_ glides into the large inlet on
which Yokohama and Tokio are situated. Yokohama is an important
commercial town, and is a port of call for a large number of steamboat
lines from the four continents. Its population is about 400,000, of whom
1000 are Europeans--merchants, consuls, and missionaries.

A few miles south-west of Yokohama is the fishing-village of Kamakura,
which was for many centuries the capital of the Shoguns. It has now
little to show for its former greatness--at one time it was said to
have over a million inhabitants--except the beautiful, colossal statue
of Buddha, the Daibutsu (Plate XXI.). The figure, which is about 40 feet
high, is cast in bronze, and dates from 1252.

At the head of the bay lies Tokio, the capital, with over two million
inhabitants. Here are many palaces surrounded by fine parks, but the
people live in small, neat, wooden houses, most of them with garden
enclosures. The grounds of the Japanese of rank are small masterpieces
of taste and excellence. It is a great relief to come out of the bustle
and dust of the roads into these peaceful retreats, where small canals
and brooks murmur among blocks of grey stone and where trees bend their
crowns over arched bridges.

In Tokio the traveller can study both the old and the new Japan, There
are museums of all kinds, picture galleries, schools, and a university
organized on the European model. There is also a geological institution
where very accurate geological maps are compiled of the whole country,
and where in particular all the phenomena connected with volcanoes and
earthquakes are investigated. In scientific inquiries the Ja