Travels of a naturalist in Japan and Manchuria

\

Rdeicnu; oi^ ,

NATIONAL LIBRARY SINGAPORE

B02996129E

MAN’CHU WOMAN.

Ae/i

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Land’s End to Rio Janeiro— Life on tlie Ocean — Natural
Phenomena — Inhabitants of the Iligh Seas — Incidents
and Reflections — Land in Sight — Rio Janeiro — City of
San Sebastian . 1

CHAPTER II.

Land-Crabs and Tiger- Beetles —Inhabitants of an Aloe-
Ferns and Flowers — Insects attracted by a Lighthouse —
A Usefid Aloe — Rockwork — Natural Aquariums — Crabs
at Dinner — The Hidden Waters — A Negro Market — The
Gold Bug

CHAPTER IIL*‘

The Cape of Good Hope— A Four Days’ Beetle Hunt — Millar’s
Point — Whales’ Bones — Fish “galore” — Wrecked Violet-
Snails— A Stranded Fiddle-fish— Cormorants and Pen-
guins — Burro wing-Snails — A Vegetable Parachute . . 30

VI

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

PAGE

The Gate of the Hast — Under the Fig Tree — Javanese Market
— Monkeys for Sale — Jungle Scene — “Massacre of the
Innocents ” — Centipedes and Scorpions — The Tiger’s Paw
— A Ludicrous Incident — Mew Island — Description of a
Coral Eeof-— Gutta-percha Trees — A Deserted Village —
Hornbills : 42

CHAPTER V.

A Visit to the Pratas Shoal — The Padi Bird — A Desolate Island
— The Joss-House — Lilliputian Forest — Gannets — Rock-
Basins — Odd Fishes — Musical Fishes — ^Ancient Quarries
— Banks of the Tchu-kiang 56

CHAPTER VI.

An Apology for Beetles— Village Trees — The Buffalo and the
Fanqui — Danes Island — Boy Hmiters — Habits of Ants —
Flowers compared with those of England — North and
South, a Porcine Contrast — Reservoirs in Canton —
Monster Aquaiium — Pond Shell-fish — The Scaly Ant-
eater — Master Wouff and “ Scales ” .... (»9

CHAPTER VII.

Stroll through Villages on the Yang-tsze-Kiang — Spring-time
• — The Pupa Gatherer — How to fatten Ducks — Charac-
teristic Scene — Banks of the Great River — Freshwater
Crabs — Eriocheir Japonicus — Youthful Poachers — The
Mina Bird — Adventures of a Tlrousand-legs . . .84

CONTENTS..

vii

CHAPTER VIII.

PAQK

Miatau Islands — Probable Origin of some Stories about Sea-
serpents — Alceste Island — -Seals — Fishing Cormorant -
The Blue Rock-pigeon — Kala-hai — A Fishing Party —
Bustards — Snake-like Fishes — Gulf of Pecheli— Strange -
looking Craft — Native Fishermen — A Shower of Beetles
■ — The Black Suif-Duck

CHAPTER IX.

The Great Wall— Quaint-looking Watch-house — Inquisitive
Sons of Ham— Visit to the Temples— Birds Shot by our
Sportsmen — ^Hawking at the Great Wall — Flowers and
Insects — Wreck of the Medusa— Scarcity of Land Shells
— Humming-bird Hawk-moth — The Shield Shrimp—
Staunton Island

CHAPTER X.

The Korea — Among the Islands— Odd Names of Mountain
Peaks — Victoria Harbour — Beacon Fires — Visit from the
Natives — Their Picturesque Appearance — ^Description of
the Chief— Costume of the Natives— Worship of Bacchus
— Their Rude Manners — Their Curiosity — Modes of
Salutation— An Anecdote 125

CHAPTER XL

Exciting Incident — Korean Tombs — Mode of Burial — Dwell-
ings in the Korea — Japanese Outpost — An Entertainment
— Hamel’s “Travels” — Language of the Koreans — A
Commendable Custom — Religious Belief — Priests and
Nuns 138

vm

.CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

PAGE

I^ort of Mah-lu-san — A Seining Party — Beautiful Scene —
Hauling the Seine — A Viviparous Pish — Encounter with
a Snake — A Clever Thief — Deer Island — Buck Shooting —
Lichens and Toads — The Sunny Gorge — ^Wilford’s Best —
Range of the Tiger 153

CHAPTER XIII

Bus.sian Manchuria — The Coast Line — The Conquerors of
China — Tartar Braveiy — Province of Liao-tung — Dan-
gerous Navigation — Mouth of the Liao-ho — A Land of
I’igs — Use of Cotton Seeds — Furriers’ Shops — Food Plants
of Manchuria — Chinese Influence — Dagelet Island — Sea
Bears — Bay of Sio-wu-hu — Manchurian Bulls — The
Manchus 167

CHAPTER XIV.

Wild Cattle— The Dog and his Master — A Haul of Salmon —
Seaweed-collecting Fishermen — A Jovial Crew — A Weak-
ness for Skulls — Olga Bay — Capture of a Strange Insect
—Place of Refuge for Old Seals — Appearance of three
Ainos — St. Vladimir Bay— A Useful Beacon — The Emerald
Wing 185

CHAPTER XV.

Expedition to an Inland Lake— Search for New Specimens —
Change of Scene — Botanical Observations — Oi-thopterous
Insects — Dragon-flies — Trapa natans — “Dash” discom-
fited — A Picnic Party — Capture of Crustaceans for Dinner
— Enthusiastic Beetle-hunters — Charred and Blackened
Trees— Cryptochiton SteUeri — An Impressive Scene . 204

CONTENTS.

IX

CHAPTER XVI.

PAOE

Eisiri — Effects of a Violent Gale^Eifunsiri Island — Deserted
Fishing Sheds — Todomisiri or Seal Island — Aniwa Bay —

The Duck Family in Full Feather — Ornithology of the
Island — ^Abodes of the Ainos — A Domestic Scene — Dress
of the Men — Feminine Ornament — The Haiiy Kmlles . 222

CHAPTER XVll.

Hakodadi — Vegetation — Pleasing Aspect of the Scenery —
Appearance of the Town — ^A Temple of Budha — Visit
to the Theatre — The Audience and the Hay — ^Vicinity
of the Town — A Charming Retreat — Intercourse with
Nature .211

CHAPTER XVllL

Beautiful Tsu-Sima — Mussel Cove and Oyster Sound — The
Adela Moth — Paulownia Imperialis — Fossil Trees — Cap-
ture of a Dam aster — Gigantic Oysters — Island of Sado —
Shooting Party — Fortune’s Beetle — Diard’s Pheasant —

Nisi Bama — Beautiful Spectacle — Squid Fishing— Squid
Village — ^Taxus Fruit — An Odd Fish . . , . 2o3

CHAPTER XIX.

Nagasaki — The Scenery — Vegetation — Insect Life — Lacquer
Trees — The Woodcutter— The Ilarbour — Desima and
Pappenberg — State Barge and Pleasm-e Boats — Scenes
in the Streets — Mendicant Priest — A Bonze — Strolling
Acrobats — Cemeteries — Ceremonies in Honour of the
Dead — The Temples — Dog-Fancier’s Shop — Gigantic Sala-
manders — Fish Festival — A Ramble in Kiusiu . . 267

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX.

PAGE

Tho Soto-Uchi, or Inland Sea — Tomo — Gay Spectacle — The
Temple — Tea-house in the Suburb — Priest and Dancing
Girls — Women of Japan— The Niphon Belle at Home —
Female Costume — Unbecoming Fashions — House of a
Wealthy Native of Tomo — Saki Distilleries — Yokohama
— Cm’iosity-Shops — Beautiful Carved Work — Japanese
Contr asts — Naruto or Whirlpool 284

CHAPTER XXI.

Simidsu Excursionists — Quack Doctors — Natural Crudosities'

— Habits of the Musina- — Ursa Major and Minor — yeomen
hauling the Seine — Waterfalls at Fat-si-jeu — Singular
Caddis Worms — Prolific Life — Villago Store — Mode of
catching Whales — Japanese Mammals — Madrepores and
MoUusca — Shell Sand — Araki— Sun-and-Moon Shell . 302

CHAPTER XXII.

The Literature of Japan — Books — Illustrations — Yoyage Home
— Oceanic Phenomena — Black Fish — Bonitoes — Dolphins
— Floating Tr ee — Pelagian Molluscs — Sea Nettles — Skele-
ton Shrimps — Sailor Crabs — Eapid Growth of Baraacles
— A Prctt}'^ Kettle of Fish 323

TEAVELS OF A NATUEALIST

IX

.JAPAN AND MANCHUEIA.

CHAPTER I.

Land’s End to Eio Janeiro — Life on tlie Ocean — Natural Phenomena —
Inhabitants of the High Seas — Incidents and Reflections — Land in
Sight — Eio Janeiro — City of San Sebastian.

EaPvLY in the year we left England in H.M.
ship “ Actseon,” bound for Eio Janeiro, our object
being to survey the little islands at the entrance
of the glorious harbour. On the passage from
the Land’s End to Madeira we had beautiful
weather. A few days previously a gale had swept
along the coast, and though there was a heavy swell
the surface of .the sea was smooth. We were
amused, on reaching a warmer latitude than that
which we had left, at watching the pretty bright

2

FLYING FISH.

guillemots wliicli floated on the surface, or dived
beneath the waves. We observed, also, with
interest, the movements of a few divers which Avere
disporting themselves about the ship. We occa-
sionally diverted the monotony of the voyage by
fishing for gi'ey gurnards, several of which we
captured with a hook and line astern. This noA^el
sport Avas both exciting and successful.

As Ave approached the anchorage off Funchal a
fcAv flying-fish Avere seen springing from the Avater,
although, as a rule, they are seldom met Avith before
the tropics are reached.- They become more and
more numerous as Ave approach the Equator ; and
familiar as is the sight of these beautiful creatures
to all AAdio traverse the ocean, their flight is in-
variably Avatched Avith interest.

From the time of Columbus, Magellan, De Gama,
and other “ Ai’gonauts of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries,” to the present day, Avhen the splendid
steamers of the Cunard and Inman lines cross the
broad bosom of the Atlantic, and “ think nothing of
it,” the same incidents have occurred, and the same

THE DOLPHIN.

3

ocean phenomena liave been observed. This must
be my apology for mentioning the inevitable flying-
fish. When, as not mifrequently happens, the poor
creature flics on board exhausted, it is picked up
from the deck, and the “ clever one ” who secures
the j^rize, holds it in his hand and delivers a pro-
found discourse on its habits and peculiarities to
the listening crew. It may not be generally known
that besides the common flying-fish, which is very
similar to a herring, there are other winged denizens
of the deep. The flying-gurnard, for instance, takes
its flight from the surface of the ocean, and the
little Pegasus, or flying-horse, may frequently l)e
seen rising from the water.

The appearance of the dolphin is always watched
for with eager curiosity. We saw many of the
long-nosed species as they passed the ship. This is
not the sailor’s dolphin, which is like a mackerel
with a straight forehead, and which changes its
colours when dying, but the true delphinus of the
ancients, upon whose back rode the musical Arion.
The better known and even familiar porpoises were

4

PASSING THE TIME.

a never-failing fund of amusement, as they raced
with the vessel, or gambolled in the foam which she
cast up about her bows. The sudden appearance
of the little petrels, which, under the name of
hlother Carey's chickens, are so dear to seamen,
though their presence is regarded as the herald of a
storm, was another source of interest. The obser-
vation of these and other natural phenomena
afforded an inexhaustible fund of amusement as
the favourable breeze bore us joyfully on our way.
Then, as sometimes happened, our progress was
impeded by a calm, when a boat was lowered for
the purpose of picking up violet-snails, or capturing
a ” vessel ” from the fleet of Portuguese-men-
of-war.”

When evening drew on apace we had other ways
of passing the time. “ All hands " were invited by
the boatswain’s pipe to dance and skylark. Sailors
are proverbially merry and light-hearted, and the
hornpipe and the reel were kept up with unflagging
spirit. Those who could sing favoured their
comrades with a song ; the witty were always ready

NATURAL PHENOMENA.

5

with the meny gibe, while the scraping of the fiddle
and the “basting of the bear” were sources of amuse-
ment to others. The officers played at leap-frog or
duck-stone on the cparter-deck, or wiled away the
time ill reading, chess, or cards. The amateur
musician brought forth melancholy notes from his
beloved flute, and the contemplative man lay supine
upon the deck and gazed upon the stars. The
heavens, indeed, were now specially worthy of
regard, for we had crossed the line, and another
hemisphere, with other constellations, was now
disclosing itself to our view.

The Southern Cross and Magellanic clouds had
taken the jilace of the North star. Our old stellar
friends were lost to view, and the sight of many
constellations and new stars was a constant source
of interest. Nor must I fail to mention that at this
point of our voyage the usual absurd and noisy
ceremonies in honour of Neptune were not for-
gotten.

The ocean, in these low latitudes, presents
several phenomena which are particularly interest-

6

TEADE WINDS.

iiig to the naturalist, and so beautiful that they are
regarded with pleasure even by unscientific ob-
servers. The forms of life which may be drawn up ^
from the depths of the sea are infinitely varied. At
night countless luminous creatures were seen glint-
ing and sparkling in its black depths. Nothing can
be conceived more capricious than their vagaries as
they dart hither and thither. To the inquirer into
the more recondite secrets of nature these phosphor-
escent creatures are no less interesting than are the
grander luminaries above to the astronomer. The
sea-faring man, however, naturally regards with,
more reverence the moon, the stars, the constella-
tions of the firmament above, as these are his silent
companions in his midnight watches, and form his
guides across the trackless wastes of ocean.

AVc were now in the region of the trade winds, of
which we took advantage. A steady breeze always
filled our sails, which hardly ever required to be
trimmed. Our noble vessel, under the influence of
the favouring breeze, made rapid progress, and we
were all in the best of spirits. How could it be

INCIDENTS AT SEA.

7

otherwise ? The atmospliere was pure and balmy,
the sea bright and rippling, the sky flecked with
fleecy clouds, and the temperature as genial as could
be desired.

During the voyage many events took place
which, though trivial in themselves, assumed an air
of importance to the “ outward bound, ’ and con-
tributed to render our long voyage less tedious and
monotonous. One day we spoke a ship and sent
letters to our friends at home ; the next, perhaps, w^e
fell in with a barnacle-covered fragment of wreck —
the sad memento, doubtless, of some tale of suffer-
ing and disaster. Haply some sailor on the bow-
sprit, expert in the use of the graines,” which is
a kind of harpoon, kept handy for this especial
purpose, impaled occasionally a dolphin or bonito.
A huge whale spouting in the distance, the vapour
from his blow-holes curling over his head, was
an object of intense regard; but the appearance
of a school of “ black-fish '' was hailed with even
greater interest. On came these monsters of the
deep, dark dusky forms leaping, and rolling, and

8

REFLECTIONS.

plunging, following the leader in a long straight
line as if they were enjoying themselves to their
heart’s content. With all these sources of interest
and amusement, however, there was much time
for meditation and reflection ; and we could not
help thinking how different w^ere the interests that
sway the minds of those "that go down to the
sea in ships, and occuj)y their husiness in great
waters.”

All emigrant ship witli youth, health, and hope
on board goes scudding jiast, and borne on the
breeze comes ever and anon the refrain of their
favourite song : —

“ To the West ! to the West ! the Land of the Free !

AVhere the mighty Missouii rolls down to the sea. ”

The skipper of an Iiidiaman, or Ocean Clipper, is
thinking only wdiat a splendid passage he will make;
the electrician is anxious for the perfection of his
tests and the integrity of his cable ; the mail agent
has eyes only for his letter bags; the sjiortsman will
try his skill upon some unoffending sea-bird ; the

APPROACH TO LAND.

9

natui'alist explores the bottom for protoplasms, clia-
tomes, and rhizopodes, or skims the surface with his
towing-net.

When traversing the great oceans, besides keep-
ing the towing-net always going whenever the ship
is not sailing too fast, and Avhenever the weather is
favourable, I always note down on a track-chart
every species of bird, fish, or mollusk, I happen
to see. If all naturalists did this on their voyage
our knowledge of the geographical distribution of
marine life would be greatly extended and im-
proved.

In course of time the voyage, which had become
' somewhat monotonous and even tedious, came to an
end, and we all felt the interest excited by the ex-
pectation of the first sight of land. Our approach
to it was indicated by the ap^jearance of fragile-
looking fishing-rafts; by currents having a tendency
to take us out of our course ; by the colour of the
sea, which began to assume a greenish hue ; and by
floating trees and plants, which, detached from their
native soil, were carried towards us.

10

EIO JANEIRO.

We gazed long and eagerly for the first view of
land, and our patience was rewarded at length by
the sight of the famous headland named Cajie Frio
looming from the distant horizon, a dim undulating
line with clouds resting on it. Passing this bare
inhospitable promontory, we wefe soon in sight of
the higli rocky and irregular coast which forms the
safe and wide anchorage of Kio.

The famous harbour of Eio Janeiro presents a
view of unparalleled beauty. The scenery around
it, indeed, is said to be the most magnificent in the
world. As at the decline of day, Ave sailed under
a cloud of canvas, with the wind blowing softly
behind, the impression produced on my mind — as
it must be on the mind of cveiyone endowed with
a perception of the beautiful in nature — was that
of a scene of enchantment.

Eio Janeiro — so named by its discoverer De
Sausa — is a misnomer; for, though a number of
small rivem flow into the bay from the Organ
Mountains, what is called Eio harbour is in reality
a noble land-locked bay.

ASCENT OF THE SUGAR-LOAF.

11

As we approached our destination we passed
several uninhabited islets, situated from two to six
miles from the entrance of the bay. These appear
to be small portions of the rocky mainland detached
from it in the infancy of the world. They are now
known as Eound Island, Flat Island, &c., according
to their shape. The entrance to the bay is some-
what narrow, and its western side appears to be
guarded by the conical leaning mass of the Sugar-
Loaf, while a rocky point of land, on which the fort
of Santa Cruz is placed, protects the eastern side.
The Sugar-Loaf Eock, which is an enormous cone of,
solid gTanitc seven hundred feet high, rises abruptly
from the sea and has been the scene of several ex-
citing adventures, almost as famous as those of the
celebrated Peter Botte mountain in the ]\Iauritius.

An acquaintance of mine, a mere youngster, gave
me an account of his own perilous ascent of the
Sugar-Loaf, which I will endeavour to render in his
own words.

You know, doctor,” he said, some fellow had
planted a flag on the top which had remained there

ASCENT OF THE SDGAK-LOAF.

no end of time, so I wasn’t going to be beaten by
him. So, one fine morning I put some biscuit in
my pocket, and my pipe, and started for the
top to plant another flag by the side of it ; and I
scrambled up to a place where the water tumbles
over a small rocky chasm, wliere I had a jolly
drink, and put my head under the spout, you
know ; and when I thought I Avas almost at the
top I found, when I could see anything for the
trees, that I Avas only near the base of the thun-
dering great peak. On I AA^ent, however, uj) the
sloping side ; and precious hot I can tell you it
Avas. AVhen I got near the top I had A^ery hard
Avork, and tore my clothes, and scratched my knees,
and Avhen alongside that confounded felloAv’s flag,
I nearly fainted, and lay doAAUi all of a heap.

“ It Avas liorrid damp, and I felt a sort of all-over-
ishness, as if I Avas going off the hooks. But I said
to myself, ‘Never say die,’ and began to craAvl
doAvn again, but I found the rock much steeper
than I thought, and slipped and tumbled about like
anything. At last,” he said, “I gaA^e it up, and

MOUNTAIN PEAKS.

13

began to doze, and feel awfully cold. And so I
remained on tlie top of the blessed mountain ever
so long, till I heard, early in the morning, some one
shouting, and, creeping near the edge of a big rock,
I looked over and saw the gunner and two marines,
who were sent by ‘the first lieutenant to look after
me. When they saw me up above in such a woeful
plight they sang out, 'All right, keep u|) your
spirits,' and that, you know, cheered me up, and I
went to meet them almost tumbling down rock
after rock ; and then, you know, they gave me a
drink of rum and water ; and^ — 'that's all.”

Rising from the circumference of the splendid
bay, which we now entered, are several rugged
mountain peaks, to which have been given fanciful
names according to the objects which they are sup-
posed to resemble. Thus, the Pao de Assuccar, or
Sugar-Loaf ; the Two Brothel’s, or Dous Irmaos ; the
Parrot’s Beak, or the Corcovado, which rears aloft
its mighty head more than two thousand feet above
the level of the sea. These lofty hills, so varied in
colour and outline, are densely wooded, but the

14

NOVEL SCENE.

different trees whicli clothe their sides with verdure
are midistinguishable in the distance, and only serve
to lend a beauty to their bases, while fleecy clouds
are sailing round their summits tinged here and
there with the hues of the setting sun.

As we drew near to our j)lace of anchorage, boats
laden with oranges came out to- meet us, and as
they approached near the ship were regarded with
interest by many a longing eye. The first person
who came on board, and greeted us on our arrival,
was the officer of health, a rather self-important
looking personage ; and soon after him ariived
several other officials. The scene was at once novel
and exciting, as H.M.S. “Actmon” came to an
anchor just opposite the city of San Sebastian.
The soul -stirring tune of the Brazilian anthem
was playing on board the flag-ship, and we were
surrounded by vessels of all nations ; by gaily-
painted passage-boats, by native canoes, by smart
little sailing craft, and by Brazilian men-of-war's
boats, the crews of which jumped up upon the
thwarts at every stroke of the oar.

INHABITANTS OF THE CAPITAL.

15

Tlie capital of Brazil has been so often described,
that, having abeady sketched the surronnding
scenery, I do not care to dwell uj)on its details.
I may, however, briefly mention a few of its more
prominent features. Viewed as a whole, it seems to
consist of a huge mass of shabby buildings thrown
together without any taste or design. Although
situated on marshy ground, and usually enveloped
in an atmosphere of fever-breeding miasmata, it yet
possesses the advantage of overlooking the splendid
bay, and of having in its front, on the opposite side,
the ‘‘ Sierra dos Orgaos,” those Organ Mountains so
often and so justly lauded, and whose sides, as I
gazed on them, were clothed with the glories of a
golden sunset.

The people who inhabit this unsavoury capital
are an indolent race, and are principally made up of
“ half-breeds.” The pure Negro seems to be the
most cheerful and industrious of the lot. The in-
habitants vary in colour from black to white, or
more strictly speaking to whitey-brown. You will
see in the narrow dirty streets, darkened by the

16

THE STEEETS.

overhanging upper stories, JMestics, who are the off-
spring of a white father and an Indian mother ;
Mulattoes, half white and half Negro, not so prepos-
sessing in their appearance as the former ; Creoles,
born of Negroes and Brazilians ; pure jet black,
woolly-haired Negroes from Africa ; Caribocoes, half
Negro and half Indian ; Indians, or aborigines of
Brazil, a poor, ugly, and degenerate face ; and lastly,
not the least important j)art of the population, the
pure Brazilians, who are Portuguese born in Brazil.

Perambulation is by no means easy or agreeable
in the muddy streets, which have no pavements or
side-paths. They are mostly occupied by Negroes,
who are busy everywhere, many of them doing the
work of horses. Cariying heavy burdens on their
backs they trot along, keeping time to a kind of
grunting chorus j)Gculiarly their own. A few
lumbering old carriages may be sometimes seen
making their way, with difficulty, along streets
which are by no means favourable to locomotion.
The novel and curious spectacle is diversified by
a considerable number of soldiers lounging idly

PUBLIC GARDEN.

17

about. There is no lack either of noisy children
or of mangy curs ; Indians in straw hats are occa-
sionally met; and from time to time stalking
solemnly along are priests in sable garments. Not
the least characteristic and interesting personages
in the crowd are the gay chattering Negresses, with
gaudy handkerchiefs bound round their heads, who
bear large baskets of bananas, oranges, and guavas.

It is really quite refreshing to leave the Kue da
Eieta and stroll into the public garden, on the right
of the city, by the water-side, where the rather
pretty walks arc shaded by umbrageous theobroma
and mango trees, and where you feel the comfort
of a cool and quiet retreat after the heat, noise, and
bustle of the crowded streets.

c

18

CHAPTER II.

Laud-Crabs and Tiger-Beetles — Inliabitants of an Aloe — Ferns and
Flowers — Insects attracted by a Liglitliouse — A Useful Aloe —
Rockwork — Katnral Afiuariums— Crabs at Dinner — The Hidden
Waters — A Negi’o JIarket — The Gold Bug,

To one who delights in the study of the plieno-
mena of nature, in observing the various forms of
animal life, in learning the habits and peculiarities
of the infinite variety of living creatures, this
country is peculiarly interesting. When I for the
first time left the crowded town, and wandered
along the beach, or penetrated and surveyed the
surrounding country, the spectacle on which I
looked was at once interesting and exciting. ]\Iy
eye, hitherto so long unaccustomed to see tropical
forms of animals and plants, except in the un-
satisfactory and oftentimes distorted condition of
those in the glass-cases of our Museums, was de-
lighted with the strange sea-eggs, and their no less

CRABS AND BEETLES.

19

singular cousins-german, the flattened shield-like
clypeasters which, dead and bleached, were strewn
along the strand as I jumped ashore at Praya do
Tinboy. All around me I beheld numbers of those
swift -footed horsemen crabs (Ocypode), which
scampered to their holes in the yellow sand when
they observed me ; and I captured, after exceeding
pains and many abortive attempts, about a dozen
silvery-white tiger-beetles which, alighting upon the
dazzling sand, ran rapidly a little way, and then
flew off again.

On all sides rose sombre-tinted granite rocks of
colossal magnitude, smooth, and speckled every-
Avhere Avitli lichens white, black, yellow, reddish,
and brown. Growing from the fissures of the
rocks that skirted the shore, Avere clumps of huge
columnar cactuses, and springing from the sides of
yaAAming gaps, Avere aloes Avith dark green, S2:>iky
leaves, and floAvering stems, tAventy, and even
thirty feet high. Some of us have read about
the straAvberry-plant of Saint Pierre, and hoAV he
despaired of ever being able to Avuite the histoiy

20

FLORAL BEAUTIES.

of animals, when he found what time and labour
were necessary to study the habits of all the visi-
tants to and dwellers about the leaves and blos-
soms of the plant on his window-sill. The minute
investigation of one of these aloes astonished me
almost as much. Little snails, with smooth, yellow
shells, called Helicinse, lurked under the decaying
footstalks ; creatures, belonging to the bug or
hemipterous tribes, of extravagant shapes, reposed
on the long green leaves ; gigantic spiders called
Ncphiloe, with very long legs, and gold and silver
spotted bodies, hung, head downwards, motionless
in the middle of their wide-spread nets, suspended
from leaf-point to leaf-pouit ; hairy spiders, short-
legged and bloated, guarded jealously their nests,
soft, yellow, silken bags filled with spider-babies in
the deep-set axils of the leaves ; while among the
rafTQ’cd fibres of the root roamed thousand-legs and
centipedes !

Leaving the shore and proceeding a little inland, I
found myself surrounded on all sides by troops of
floral beauties. There were flowers with trumpet-

ISLAND OF RAZA.

2L

shaped, starlike, and crown -like corollas, whose
names were entirely unknown to me. I recognised,
however, the sweet, modest, dark-eyed Tliunbergia,
the bright blue blossoms of Plumbago, and the
rich and crimson corymbs of tlie Asclepias. ^ly
“vasculum” was very soon crammed to repletion
with the fragile fronds of ferns, the strap-shaped
Polypodium squammulosum, the branched Menis-
cium, the palmate Pteris, and the pretty ash-leaved
Anmmia.

One day I pixid a visit to the small island of
Raza, a conical mass of granite rising from the
])ottom of the sea; partly bare rock, and partly
covered with vegetation. The winds and the
waves have, in the course of ages, so acted on the
primal mass as to reduce its constituents to powder;
and as you walk along you seem to tread on golden
dust which is composed of glittering mica. In the
deep-blue sky above soared two or three dark, long-
winged man - of -war bhds, hundreds of restless
hungry gnlls hovered and screamed around the
base, and from his barnacle-clad rock, the red- billed

22

THE LIGHT-HOUSE.

oyster-catclier scanned tlie stranger witli curious
eye. As I scrambled up tlie rough-liewn granite
steps, mpiads of grey, fork -tailed, sea woodlice
swarmed across tlie path ; glistening, brown, golden-
eyed lizards darted among the loose stones; little
bustling red ants scaled our legs ; slender, yellow
stone-centipedes lurked in the damp corners ; a
dark, ugly gecko poked out his warty head to look
at us ; and a huge, black cocki'oach gathered
around her flattened body a numerous brood,
sheltering them carefully • as a hen does her
chickens. Slow and sober-coloured beetles, called
Opatrums, abounded on the barren sandy sjiots ;
l)lue, brown, and yellow butterflies hovered gaily
over the convolvulus and Tradescantia flowers that
enlivened the sterile ground ; and, leaping and
whirring among tlie stunted brushwood, were
legions of noisy, long-shanked grasshoppers.

There is a revolving light on the islet, and the
bland custodian of tlie light-house informed me that,
attracted by the brilliancy thrown back from his
highly polished reflectors, winged insects come by

ISLETS.

23

thousands round his lantern, “ tapping at his win-
dow ” all night long.

There is another islet, the precipitous Ilha do
Foucinhos, on which our party also landed. There
was a little pond at the summit, on the surface
of which disported some water-beetles, or gigantic
whirlwigs, and crawling on the leaves I noticed a
fiat, spiral pond-snail, called Planorbis. In lighting
a beacon fire, as sailors arc fond of doing, our hands
grew smutty, and looking round about us, we spied
a washing-basin ready made by Nature in the core
of an old beheaded aloe, and containing about a
(|uart of clear rain-water I Turkey-buzzards cabnl)^
watched our movements from aloft ; and, solitary,
on a pointed crag, sat a noble, bare-legged falcon,
dio'esting at his leisure some victim of his prowess.

C5 O

Another day was devoted to the small island
named Praya do Vermelha. The heaped -up
boulders were crowded with aloes, always hereabout
a conspicuous feature in the scene ; and the rents
and fissures were green with prickly pears. Over-
come by the heat, I seated myself on the rocks by

u

CRABS.

tlie sea, and watched the habits of the creatures
peojding the marine aquaria beside me. The stone-
basins were filled with translucent water, and fringed
with 2)lumose sea-weeds. Purple, long-s]Dined sea-
urchins were laboriously crawling up the steej^ and
rugged sides by tiie aid of their tubular feet ; the
barnacles, which clothed the submerged suidiice of the
rocks, threw out spasmodically at regular intervals
their tufted feet ; while above high-water mark, a
Littorina (a zebra-striped and beautiful periwinkle)
adhered by thousands to the smooth, worn granite.
But the crabs amused me most. They nearly all
belonged to the genus Sesarma, or painted-crabs, and
Avere very numerous. From the stilly pond they
stealthily climbed the rocks just above the wash
and rqq^le of the tide, and once on terra firma, they
deliberately sciaitinized the weed-clad surface around
them. The barnacles Avere their prey, and they
speedily selected one, for their appetite A\^as keen.
One set himself down resolutely before the tempt-
ing dish. The lids, formed of the o])ercular valves,
Avere soon removed, and Sesarma luxuriously helped

XEGRO MARKET.

25

liimsclf first witli one hand and then with the other,
like a greedy hoy from a howl of savoury porridge.
One poor fellow had lost an arm in some fierce fray,
hut he plied the remaining memher with increased
activity, as if to make up for lost time I

But I have said nothing concerning the main-
land, which, of course, did not remain unvisited or
unexplored. It was a cloudy day when we shot
across the “Hidden Waters,’’ as the Indians call
the harhour, and we rejoiced that the sun so
heneficently veiled his fierce rays in a somewhat
misty atmosphere, for we were hound for the Sugar-
Loaf Mountain, and our toilsome climh would he
more pleasant. As we landed, we found ourselves
among groups of NegToes, stpatting on the ground,
and holding a market, with their wares disposed
arormd them. The shining ehony creatures were
laughing and chattering as is their wont, gaily
discussing each other’s merits, and recommending
the flavour of their durians, mammy-apples, and
bananas.

Across the harhour in the hir distance to the left,

26

WATER-TORTOISE.

rose the Organ Mountains, abruj^tly grand, their
many-coloured sides and fluted rocks dimly veiled
in the mist of tlie early morning ; while to the left
stretched deep purple valleys, and long green undu-
lating hills clothed with an indistinct and billowy
verdure.

We had not gone far before the enthusiasm of
the party broke forth in exclamations of siiq^rise
and delight at the beauty of the scenery, which I
confess is quite as attractive as Von Martins and
Humboldt have painted it. As we proceeded on our
way, we passed a large, weedy, shallow well by the
roadside. I looked down into it, and with a cove-
tous eye perceived a flat-backed, long-necked water
tortoise, which was leisurely swimming round and
round. Suspended above him by a rope was a
bucket, which we lowered cautiously, but he per-
sistently refused to enter it. Half afraid of snakes,
I penetrated a dense thicket, and crawled on hands
and knees to the stems of some Avild plantains, meet-
ing by the way all sorts of clammy, slabby, creej)-
ing and uncomfortable life.” Under the decaying

CENTIPEDES.

27

leaves I found coiled up millipedes of almost fabu-
lous dimensions, and those other flattened forms
with sculptured bodies, named Polydesmi. I saw
numbers of blue centipedes wriggling away witli
rapid-moving legs, and snake-like undulations of
their many-jointed bodies. Here, too, I found that
strange connecting link between the spiders and the
scorpions, called by naturalists, Phrynum, a harm-
less, inert creature, spinning no web, and resem-
bling in its habits the ‘‘harvest-men” of English
stubble fields. I also came across some living
specimens of the curious distorted snail named
Streptaxis, which, unlike most land-snails, feeds on
worms.

As I emerged again into the brilliant sunlight, I
was greeted by the sight of creatures more agree-
able and beautiful — the great sho^vy butterflies,
languidly flapping their parti-coloured wings.

The botanist, too, will find here specimens of
infinite variety for his observation and study. The
green-topped tapering palms were splendid, and
there were numerous delicate pink-flowered orchids

28

AMUSING INCIDENT.

clustering among tlie brandies of tlie trees. The
buff corolla of Thimbergia rivals in its modest
beauty the gaudy passion-flowers that hang in rich
clusters ; and in the dark sequestered nooks many
a jialmate frond and feathery spray shoot up in all
their elegance and beauty.

During our ramble an amusing incident occurred.
, Some of our party had been reading Edgar Poe’s
mysterious and imaginative story of the Gold
Bug/’ and, what is more, actually believed in the
existence of such a wondrous insect. As if to con-
firm them in this belief, and to prove the precious
bug to be no myth or fabulous creature of the
poet’s brain, I captured in my sweeping-net one of
tliose splendid glittering tortoise - beetles named
Cassidas, the wings and body of which are
fashioned as it -were of bimiished gold. With
laudable pride, I think, and with some exultation, I
displayed my prize, but, with questionable veracity,
I also proclaimed it to be the veritable “ Gold Bug ”
of the American author. One of my companions,
now wandering in the wilds of Borneo, a creature

THE GOLD BUG.

29

of as heated an imagination as was ever the writer
of ‘‘the Tales,” eagerly scanned the auriferous
insect. Desirous of a closer inspection, he insists
on holding it in his hand ; but no sooner is the
envied object deposited in his palm, and his excited
gaze captivated by the glitter of its golden wings,
than lo ! away flies the “ gold bug.” The utter
dismay and blank amazement depictecf in the faces
of the surrounding group were truly ludicrous.
Vain were their regrets at the loss of the precious
insect — not another specimen was seen that day ;
and as we had to start almost immediately on our
return voyage, we had no opportunity of capturing
another specimen of the same curious species.

30

CHArTER III.

The Cape of Good Hope— A Four Days’ Beetle Hunt — Millar’s Point —
"Whales’ Bones — Fish “ galore ” — Wrecked Violet-Snails — A
Stranded Fiddle-fish — Connorants and Penguins — Burrowiug-Snails
— A Vegetable Parachute.

Having accomplished the purpose for wliich we
Averc sent to Eio Janeiro, Ave left it, on our re-
turn, toAA'ing the “Dove,” our little steam-tender,
by tAvo 9 -inch hemp haAA^sers, and after a voyage of
six AAxeks, AA^e reached the Cape of Good Hojie. On
our ai’rival the liaAvsers, AAdiich Avere quite ncAv on
starting, Avere hauled inboard, Avhen they Avere

found coA^ered AAuth barnacles along their Avholc

»

length. These Avere nearly all full-grown, and, AAuth
the exception of one small Avdiite kind of Balanus,
Avere all pedunculated or stalked, belonging to the
genera Lepas, Scalpellum and Otion. So numerous
AA^re they, that even Avlien the haAA^sers Avere
comparatively freed from them, they became so

n

FLOATING SPANS.

31

offensive, from the decaying animal matter about
them, as to require washing with Sir AV. Burnett’s
solution, and they had to be kept on deck a con-
siderable time before they could be reeled up below.

On another occasion we fell in with a floating
spar seven hundred miles from the Azores. From
the fact of its being covered with barnacles, it was
the general impression that it must have been a
long time in. the water. On a boat being lowered,
however, the carpenter examined it, and pronounced
it to be a new spar, the lower-mast of some vessel.
It was entirely covered with full-grown Lepas ana-
tifera ; a fact which goes to prove how rapid is the
growth of the Lepades, and also how desirable it is,
for the sake of humanity, to examine these floating
wrecks, even when they seem apparently hoary
with age. The fate of many missing vessels might
possibly be determined by reading the name marked
upon such floating spars.

The Cape of Good Hope offers in many respects
a striking contrast to Kio, yet it is a pleasant place,
and I have many pleasant memories of the time

32

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

passed there. AYliat rambles and serambles, 0
Simonsberg, have I not had upon thy rugged sides !
YHiat .sunny hours have I not spent, among the
gleaming, glittering silver-trees ! Ydiat exciting
labour have I not undergone, in overturning huge
flat stones for i^retty, spotted Anthiae, and other
sand-loving beetles! What thrilling starts have I
not experienced at an unexpected sight of a deadly
cobra, with head erect and flat dilated neck vibrat-
ing rapidly from side to side ! With what alarmed
surprise have I not found unawares a coiled-up
scorpion under a wayside stone ! How frantically
have I not chased and dodged rock-rabbits among
the harsh diy brushwood ! How eager have been
my quests after the ripe fruits of the fig-marigold !
In what triumph have I not borne from the rocky
heights above the great showy flow’-ers of Protea
magnifica !

The uniform sober features of the Cape are indeed
tame after the glowing scenery and exuberant vege-
tation of Eio ; yet the breezy plains covered with
heaths and bulbous plants, and the long stretches of

Simon's town. ' 33

brown sandy bays, render a temporary sojourn here
very delightful. We remained at the Cape during
the whole of the month of April, and found the
weather, on the whole, fine, though occasionally
somewhat stormy.

One of the authors most lamentable failings is

O

a weakness for lieetles ; and, as some of mf lady
readers may wish to know what attraction there
is in the pursuit of creatures to them so very unin-
viting, I will beg them to accompany me in a

* •

three-days' beetle hunt;

On landing at Simon’s Town almost the first
beetle you see in passing through the Dockyard, is
a little brown, flat-backed stranger brought over in
the sugar-bags from the Mauritius (Tragosita mau-
ritiana). Passing through the town we just loitered
. to purchase some huge buuches of luscious grapes
from Pvachel, the pretty fruiterer, and sallied forth
rejoicing, to plunge at once among the Proteas
which clothed the sides of glorious old Simonsbero’
Here, following the example of the long-tailed,
gaudy-hued honeysuckers (also partial to beetles),

n

34

BEETLES.

we discovered a rich store of our dingy favourites.
In nearly every half-blown blossom we found,
smothered in down, a large green sun-beetle, and
on proceeding to dissect the overblown flowers, we
discovered at least six other kinds, feeding on the
floral envelopes or burrowing in the recej^tacle. On
the Iqjives of the silver-trees, and on the foliage of
the heaths, we obtained some pretty lady-birds.
Nor were beetles our only companions. On this
first day of our hunting season we made the
acquaintance of many charming birds, especially of
the crow with the white collar, and of the noisy
butcher-bird. We picked up a small tortoise, wliich
seemed, poor stupid thing ! to have lost its mother ;
and once we observed with a shudder the sluggish
dark form of the fatal cobra glide slowly beneath
the shelter of an old uprooted tree.

Another day, ground-beetles were our game.
Our fair readers must picture us, covered with sand,
toilinjx amono; the loose stones at the base of the
mountain, turning them over to see what there was
beneath. We took some very fine prizes named

IvAFFIll HERDSMAN.

35

Anthioo, some of wliicli were large and black, some
small and white -spotted. Here also we discovered
a goodly store of sand-beetles and burrowing shore-
beetles! In the gulleys, in the kloffs and small
ravines, in the humid neighbourhood of streams and
water-courses, mud-burrowing and marsh-beetles,
together with a lily-beetle and a few snoutdfcetles,
turned up and rewarded our patient assiduity. The
Kaffir* herdsman regarded us on this sultry day
with special wonder, for while, crouched motionless
under the shadiest bush he could find, he watched
his browsing buffiiloes, lo ! we were toiling and
moiling in the sun, and after all our exertions
finding nothing which we appeared to regard as
food 1 Hence his amazement. On our way Irack
we captured a few stragglers, among them some
elongated bark-beetles under the bark of a hollow
tree near a pretty cottage on the hillside, where we
gathered delicious mushrooms. A fine di\dng-
beetle was taken in a cattle-pond ; a mimic flower-
beetle and a shard-beetle were captured promena-
ding a sheep-walk. By the sides of a sandy road

36

Millar’s poixt.

much used by buffaloes, we came upon a large sable
sacred-beetle busily employed, like Sisyphus, in
rolling uj)-hill earthen balls containing his little
ones, wliich, as often as not, when pushed along
with his crooked legs nearly to the top of the bank,
came rolling down aocain.

On^he third day we proceeded to Millai's Point
along the coast, and the special object of our
mission "w^as (start not, gentle reader ! ) — carrion-
beetles ! We pursued an uneven course up sand-
hills and down sand-dales until we espied a huge
boulder rock covered with the trailing stems and
fleshy leaves of the yellow Mesembryanthemum or
Fig-Marigold. The green carpet was torn off from
the surface of the stone, when out ran the rove-
beetles, large-eyed, burrowing, and broad-bodied.
At the same time the little pale scoqiions dropped
down, while the nimble yellow centipedes vanished
mysteriously, with that unpleasant wriggling move-
ment peculiai’ to hundred-legs and snakes.

About two miles to the left of Simon’s Tovm
w^e crossed a plain wdicre the grass struggled for

REMAINS OF STRANDED WHALES.

37

existence with the sanclj and where the round,
green goiu’ds of the colocynth rested upon the
ground like shot strewing the surface of a battle-
field. A thousand footprints of horses stamped in
the moist sand (for the ground is used for breaking-
in horses,) heightened the resemblance.

On a sudden a taint in the pure air offench3d our
nostrils, but we knew what it meant, and, like the
vulture to his carrion-meal, we were led by the nose
to the carcase of a sheep! Placing our nobility
to windward we capsized the defunct mutton, and
those useful scavengers of nature, the bur}dng-
beetles and the carrion-beetles, rewarded our bold
adventure.

We arrived soon at Millar s Point, and approached
the great flat smooth rocks, where, on this wild pro-
montory, they haul up the carcases of captured or
stranded whales by chams and windlasses, strip the
huge bones of their flesh, and* cut up the blubber
for the oil. All around were stray fragments
and “ disjecta membra ” of the mighty fish-like
mammals. Turning over a dorsal vertebra with

38

FISH GALOEE.

effort, for the bone was large and heavy, we secured
a choice beetle or two, and by a delicate investi-
gation of an unsavoury fathom of “ baleen ” we
appropriated a shining little skin-beetle.

On our return we descended the sand-hills near
the sea, and by the ancient and fishlike smell ” we
became aware of the vicinity of a station for
cleaning and diying fish. Here were fish galore.
Fish salted in great tubs ; fish lying in heaps uj)on
the ground ; fish by cartloads ; fish by boatloads ;
fish split open on long tables ; fish covering all the
rocks outside; fish by thousands drying on poles —
stacks of fish ! We raised a casual board, and
behold, the ground Avas alive with bombardier-
beetles, and there Avas an irregular salvo as in ararin
they discharged their mimic guns !

The long stretch of fiat sandy shore betAA^een
Simon’s ToAAm and Fish-hook Bay aa\is a faA'ourite
Avalk of mine, fresh, breezy, and full of interest.
The Aveather had been very stormy of late, and
as I strolled leisurely along the beached margent
of the sea ” I stumbled across a stranded fiddle-fish,

PEACEFUL SCENE.

a 9

witli a head like a ray and a tail like a shark. The
shore was strewn with many other remnants of fish,
crab, and cnttle, to which various fatal casualties
had occurred. Among these we observed an entire
flotilla of lanthinas, or violet sea-snails, which had
suffered shipwreck despite the l^uoyant floats with
which each tiny vessel has been provided by Nature.
Now, however, the scene was very peaceful. Out
at sea only two little boats were visible, fishing for
snook, (a kmd of long-nosed mackerel,) between
Noah^s Ark and the Eoman Eocks. The long roll-
ing breakers came tumblmg in with a deep and
hollow roar, and on the huge bare rocks along one
portion of the shore sat the cormorants drying their
dusky wings, or sitting upright, motionless, like
learned doctors met in solemn conclave. Near
them were foolish penguins, gorged with fish,
dozing in the fitful sun-gleams. Three skulls of the
“ right whale ” were bleaching on the sand, and
the eyo of the great sea-eagle watched us from
above.

Strolling a little inland to seek shelter from a

40

THE SILVER-TREE.

shower among the stunted trees and scrub, I
observed hundreds of large globular land-snails
suddenly make their appearance on the sandy soil
where before the rain they had lain perdu to avoid
the heat and drpiess of the sun. Here then we
had before us a true buiTOwing snail !

During our brief sojomii at the Cape I was greatly
interested in the way in which Nature provides for
the dissemination of the seeds of the splendid silver-
tree, the Leucodendron argenteum of botanists.
The lance-like leaves, the stem, the branches, and
even the fruit-cones, are covered with a silky down
which glistens in the sun with a silvery sheen, and
the mode by which the fruit is dispersed is, as I have
said, very curious. The large, oval, silvery cone is
covered with scales, which being recurved by the
heat, the ripe fruit or seed is suddenly cast forth
with a little click. It docs not fall at once however
to the ground, but is borne uj) by a beautiful con-
trivance. The fruit is enclosed in a thin^ amber-
coloured capsule or case, sunnounted by a crown
composed of four feathery shafts, which radiate

DISSEMINATION OF ITS SEEDS. 4-1

upwards, but are united at tlieir bases to form a
sheath for the pistil. When the ripe fruit is ejected
from the cone, it bursts the membranous envelope
which holds it, and when released falls about an
inch, and remains suspended by the stigma, which
forms a sort of knot ; thus at the same time balanc-
ing the tiny parachute, and by its mode of sus-
pension forming a beautiful provision to take off
the weight of the parachute when the seed strikes
' the ground.

r

k

42

CHAPTER IV.

The Gate of the East — Under the Fig Tree— Javanese Market — Monkeys
for Sale — Jungle Scene — “Massacre of the Innocents” — Centipedes
and Scorpions — The Tiger’s Paw — A Ludicrous Incident — Mew
Island — Description of a Coral Eeef — Gutta-percha Ti-ees — A
Deserted Village — Hornbills.

AYe were detained some time at “ tlie Gate of the
East/’^ — as the Straits of Simda have been called—
with orders to intercept the troop-shij)s on their way
to China, for we had had tidings of the terrible
Indian mutiny, and the troops were wanted else-
where. AYe beguiled the time by catching tiger-
sharks, and landing on the woody islets which dot
the calm deep waters of the sleepy Straits ; we shot
wild pigs on Thwart-the-way Island, and astonished
the noisy cockatoos on Krakatua Island. As we
invaded their solitudes, they ascended screaming
in large flocks, and circled round and round the
highest tree-tops.

ANGER.

415

•

At Anger, on the mainland of Java, where we
landed on one occasion, we strolled under the shade
of the cocoa palms which stretch along the level
sandy shore, and Avatched the artful manners of
the sand-crab, which has some very amusing tricks.
Near the village we loitered about the great banyan
tree, under the shade of whose many-drooping
branches and Avide-spread foliage cluster the indo-
lent Javanese, in their loose sarongs and bamboo
hats, offering for sale their multifarious Avares.
Squatting on the ground sat a hideous baboon,
complacently munching a banana, at the same time
keenly Avatching, AAdth little tAAunkling eyes (the
expression of Avhich Avas very mischievous), every
movement of those around him. Pensive and
subdued, hugging his knees with his slender hands,
I obserA^ed a long-armed ape, AA^hile several smaller
monkeys, grinning, chattering, and shoAving theii*
teeth at all Avho approached them, Avere quarrelling
among themselves, or stealing everything they
could lay their hands on. Lories, love-birds, large
black and broAvn squirrels, and Java-sparroAVS Avere

44

MEW BAY.

confined in neat little bamboo cages. Tamarinds
and water-melons were exposed for sale. Here and
there might be seen a dingy flat-backed water-
tortoise, and sometimes a python with splendid
spotted skin. Everywhere baskets of the larger and
more shovy conchs and cowries were so arranged
as to attract cnstomei's. There were also mounds
of cocoa-nuts, heaps of pine -apples, enormous
yams, huge bunches of ripe bananas, and numerous
aromatic shaddocks which had been grown in the
neighbourhood of Batavia, and which always have
a finer flavour than any produced elsewhere.

I purchased two pretty spotted civet-cats, which,
hoAvever, were very unamiable — I may say, savage.
I also obtained two of those gentle, timid chevro-
tins, or pigmy deer, not much larger than hares ;
they are very difficult to keep alive in confinement,
requiring to be fed on thin slices of green plantains,
or unripe bananas.

AVe watered the ship at ]\Iew Bay, near the
entrance to Sunda Straits. I went ashore with the
watering party, and wandered about to have a look

DETOUR THROUGH THE FOREST. 45

at the place. On the steep, wooded shore I noticed
a beautiful little cascade which fell down a rock
into the sea ; here, under the shade of dark-leaved
trees, the water-casks were filled without let or
hindrance. Tliere was a legend among the sailors,
of a rhinoceros having charged a watering party at
this very spot some time previously, which exciting
incident, if ever it occurred, lent an additional
charm to the spot in the eyes of these danger-loving
sons of the sea. In sober truth, however, the
ground all about was literally ploughed up by the
tracks of these huge unwieldy pachyderms.

Instead of landing at the watering place, how-
ever, I preferred making a little detour through the
forest, at no OTeat distance from the shore. Dead,
hoary, lichen-spotted, fern-tufted trunks lay pros-
trate in my path, and gxeat, green, sombre trees
overshadowed the snow-white coral strand, which
gleamed beneath their wide-spread orchid-laden
branches. My progress at first was somewhat
slow and difficult, on account of jungle parasites
and thorny creepers ; but as I proceeded I looked

46

SCOEPIOXS.

about and bunted for specimens of natural his-
tory. Coming to a bxllen tree, I overturned it,
and discovered a slender green snake, •with a
turned-up pointed nose, and otherwise graceful
in its movements and appearance. The crea-
ture, being vigilant, wide-awake, and active, very
naturally made its escape as soon as it found
itself disturbed in its retreat, A little further
onward I came upon a fallen trunk overgrown
with ferns. On raising it I j)erceivcd beneath it
two ugly scorpions, black, of a formidable size, and
coiled affectionately round a numerous progeny.
These reptiles were rather repulsive in appearance.
With cautious care,- for I suspected their venom to
be potent, I passed a running noose of twine round
their knotted tails, and secured the parents of this
interesting family by suspending them to a conve-
nient twig. As for the little ones, I could dispose
of them only by a second “ JMassacre’ of the Inno-
cents,” and every tender scorpion of the brood was
mercilessly butchered !

Talking of scorpions reminds me that I have at

A TREE RICH IN PROMISE.

47

times induced some people to believe that I pos-
sessed tlie power of taming these antipathetical
creatures, and their equally repellent many-footecl
relatives, the centipedes. Though the capacity of
rendering such venomous reptiles harmless may
appear amazing to the uninitiated, there was really
nothing supernatural in the “Mystery-maiTs” black-
art, which simply consisted in surreptitiously
nipping off the tip of the scorpion’s sting and the
.poison hooks of fell Scolopendi’a’s jaws with a pair
of scissors. Thus deprived of the power to pene-
trate the skin, the once noxious insects are baffled
in their attempts to do mischief, and may be per-
mitted to roam undisturbed over the hands and
face Avithout the slightest fear of danger.

I next came to a huge tree, which, from its
appearance, seemed to promise some response to the
anxious inquiries of the naturahst. Its decayed
trunk was covered with toadstools, and tenanted
by legions of white-ants ; we also discovered on
it some fungus-eating beetles, a very handsome
species, of a goodly size, marked prettily on the

48

RIVULETS.

back witli a black-and-red pattern. Stripping off a
portion of the loose and partially-detacbed bark, I
was momentarily startled by the appearance of a
little, nimble, dusky, splay-footed, flat-bellied gecko,
a sort of lizard, Avhich was instantly taken up and
made a prisoner, not, however, alas ! without the
loss of his tail, which fell off in the struggle. A
couple of yellow centipedes were more fortunate in
their attempt to escape; dropping on the ground,
they vanished in a most desperate hurry. Numerous
shining, smooth thousand -legs” were coiled up in
the rotten wood, and under the damp, close-laid
masses of bark were the flattened forms of several
strange bark-beetles.

This wild tiger-haunted corner of Java is per-
meated by small trickling rivulets which flow
beneath the undergrowth. * Stooping down to talvo
a drink at one of these (for the thermometer here
stands at 90° in the shade), I noticed something
which made me start. Eobinson Crusoe, when lie
saw ‘‘ the print of a man's foot in the sand,” could
not have been more completely taken aback than I

OMINOUS TRACE.

49

was by the object on Avliich my eye was riveted.
Under my very nose, the fresh imprint of a tiger^s
paw was manifest, so large that my outspread hand
just covered it. Aware, however, of the twilight-
loving habits of these cat-like monsters, I felt some-
what reassured, and was by no means inclined to
be diverted from my scientific investigations. The
finding of some pretty fresh-water shells in the
stream diverted my attention from this ominous
trace of the much-dreaded man-slayer. It must
not be suj)posed, however, that there was no cause
for alarm; two villages in the immediate neigh-
bourhood were at that very moment deserted,
having been recently desolated by these formidable
aninnils.

■ Still, knowing that, though by no means impos-
sible, it was not very likely that they would be
prowling about, or venture to make an attack in
the full blaze of sunshine, I continued my re-
searches. Among the foliage of the trees I dis-
covered some handsome land-snails, and several
other kinds of land-shells under the dead leaves.

E

9

50 LUDICROUS INCIDENT.

while pretty silver-marked helmet-beetles alighted
on tlie sunlit blades of horizontal leaves. The
loud grating noise of the tree-crickets, or cicadse,
vibrated through the otherwise silent leafy wilder-
ness without a moment of cessation.

A ludicrous incident happened here to my friend
B . Anxious to explore the tiger-haunted pre-

cincts of one of the deserted villages, he was
confronted on his way by a stream. Nothing
daunted, however, by the obstacle, he plunged in
and swam to the opposite bank. Here he found a
smouldering wood-lire, Avhich he gaily replenished,
and before which he hung up his dripping inex-
pressibles on a stick to dry. In the somewhat
primitive costume in which he now appeai’ed, he
proceeded to examine, with the eye of a hunter, the
tracks of rhinoceros and other “ferae naturae,’’
which, he stated, did greatly abound there. Hav-
ing satisfied even his curiosity, our young friend
returned to the bank of the stream to reclaim his
nether habiliments. Alas! nothing but a burnt
shred was visible. What could he do in these

MEW ISLAND.

51

•

circumstances? No choice remained but to make his
way back through the difficult jungle, defiant of
scratches, insensible to thorns, eventually to present
himself on board, an object of astonishment to his
wondering messmates.

A few days later, I spent several hours in ex-
ploring Mew Island, a little coral islet near the
entrance of the Sunda Strait. This island is densely
wooded to the waters edge, and is partly encircled
by a barrier-reef. As I stepped from the boat upon
the reef, I was struck at once with the extreme
beauty of a species of amidiitritc, a sea- worm living
in holes of the great solid madrepores which com-
pose the reef. The gills of these lovely creatures
are in the form of spiral ribbons of a brilliant
orange-green and blue’; these -resplendent gaudy
plumes are alternately extruded and withdrawn,
and seen through the pellucid water, present a very
singular and beautiful appearance. On the moist
sand within the reef were numbers of pale grey
crickets, veritable maritime Orthoptera, which share
the strand With horseman-crabs, and perforate the

E 2

52

CmilOSITIES OF NATURE.

soil in every direction. It was now calm, as well
as hot, and the still water under the dark shadow
of the overhanging trees abounded with long-
spilled purple sea-eggs, glancing here and there
among which were black and yellow chsetodons,
fishes of a strikingly handsome appearance, on
account of the contrast of colour which they pre-
sent. Jumping from stone to stone like so many
tiny seals, were numbers of jieriophthalmi, fish as
singular in form as the chsetodons are vivid in
colour. Sea-slugs, or holothurim, were lyiug quies-
cent in the shallow pools, or “ chugging their slow
lengths along ” the coral debris ; some crabs, with
bright scarlet eyes, were detected hiding beneath
the madrepores; and starfish, with slender snake-
like rays, were observed wriggling their way among
the dead ’shells and seaweed. Such were some of
the curiosities of nature which struck me as worthy
of observation during my sojourn on this tropical
Ijarrier-reef.

On penetrating the jungle, I could not but
admire the great gutta-percha trees fimily anchored

DESERTED VILLAGE.

53

in the loose coral, and supported by broad but-
tresses which extended beyond the base of their
trunks. One giant tree had fallen, and his prostrate
form was ahready clothed with a drooping pall of
epiphytel^and nearly screened from view by the
pinnate fronds of that line fern Lomaria, and the
cylindric branches of enormous club -mosses, or
Lycopodiums. A species of solitary - wasp, and
legions of indefatigable white-ants, were engaged on
the work of demolition, which in the tropics is soon
effected ; while in the tree-tops overhead, the cicadse
were chanting a monotonous dirge over the decay-
ing form of the vegetable giant. This was the
first time I had seen the Cycas in fruit, and I
obtained some fine specimens, of the size and shape
of large pine-apples. I perceived also a species of
Nepenthes, with very pretty pitchers, growing in
great luxuriance in one part of the island.

Continuing my walk, I came upon a deserted
village, which offered a picture of mingled luxu-
riance and desolation — the luxuriance natural, the
desolation human. The ruined huts were en-

54 -

TIGERS.

circled by verdurous broad-leaved bananas, and the
blackened stems of burnt palms, while some were
overgrown with ferns, or half bmied beneath dense
masses of parasitic creepers. The capsicum and
cotton-j>lants around were choked by ^be rank
growth of trailing convohuili, and the village paths
were green with weeds, and obstructed by rotten
trees swarming with centipedes and scorj^ions.
Absorbed in the contemplation of this strange scene,
I was startled by the sound of heavy, flapping
wings, and looking up saw two large birds with
outstretched necks, winging their way to a tall bare
tree adjacent ; as they perched side by side upon
it, I recognised the great black-and-white hornbill.
In the perfect solitude of the jungle, sudden sounds
of mystery, like the vibration of the wings of these
buxls, the light crafty step of the tiger, or the
apprehension of the unknown horrors of the jungle,
induce one to carry his hand instinctively towards
the faithful revolver. The tigers were very per-
severing in the pursuit of their prey. Several
Malays had come over here to avoid those which

MALAY FUGITIVES.

55

had devastated their village on the mainland, but
these man-slayers, having once tasted human blood,
swam over to the island in pursuit of the fugitives,
and so molested them that they were forced to quit
the neighbourhood altogether.

56

CHAPTER V.

A Visit to tlie Pratas Shoal — The Padi Bird — A Desolate Island — The
Joss-House — Lilliputian Forest — Gannets — Rock-Basins — Odd
Fishes— Musical Fishes— Ancient Quarries — Banks of the Tchu-
kiang.

My next trip was to tlie Pratas Shoal, or rather
reef, in the China Sea. As the “ Dove ” gimboat
was ordered to survey the reef, 1 went in her as a
volunteer. About one hundred miles from Hong-
Kong, a ■ padi-bird was observed on the wing,
making futile attempts, poor thing, to get on board.
This fact is so far interesting as tending to confirm
the theory that, after the aquatic web-footed swim-
mers like the gulls, the gannets, and the albatrosses,
the wading birds form the earliest colonists of
oceanic atolls and other far-off islets.

When I landed on the island (which appeared to
be merely one end of the' horseshoe-shaj)ed coral
reef, elevated above the level of the sea, and covered

PHATAS SHOAI

57

I

with vegetation), like Eobinsoii Crusoe, I lighted a
fire, and made a snug tent-house out of the sail of
the jolly-boat, choosing for my bivouac a little
sheltered glen, with bushes of Scaviola on one side,
and a thicket of stunted Tournefortia on the other.
Having appointed one boy as cook, I sent the other
boys to collect firewood, and, if possible, to catch a
turtle. Having arranged the house to my satisfac-
tion, I took a walk round my island. Fringing it
near the sea I observed a carpet of yellowish-green
creeping grass, the fiowers with large white anthers,
and bearing a delicate feathery stigma ; and this
green circular border was gemmed all over with in-
numerable blossoms of a pink-and- white convolvulus.

At the first glance nothing is visible inland but
dense, rounded masses of glaucous-green shrubs,
mostly Scaviola, with here and there traces of
Toui'nefortia. As I advanced, however, I saw open
spaces with heaps of finely-powdered coral sand,
white as the driven snow. The bones of ship-
wrecked men, mingled with those of the turtle on
which they had fed, were scattered all around.

58

JOSS-HOUSE.

J

bleaching in the sun. Tlie heat was intense, and
with hundreds of gannets hovering over my head, I
bathed in the view of the shoreless ocean. So bold
grew the gannets as to swoop down upon me, and
even to threaten my eyes ; and I left the limpid
waves to j^elt them with lumj^s of coral, for stones
. there were none. The dark dorsal fin of a shark
appearing now and again above the surface of the
water looked ominous and ugly ; so I dressed, and
proceeded with my exj^loratioiis.

I had not gone far before I captured a white
egret, with a crest of two long feathers; and a
gannet’s nest which I observed, I robbed of two
light green, pointed eggs, as large as those of a
duck. In the course of my scientific explorations I
was stung by a little scoipion. When I had pro-
ceeded some way, I came to a small joss-house filled
by grateful mariners Avith offerings to the Chinese
goddess of the sea, this mimic temple having been
built by the poor fishers Avho come here. The
fishermen who frequent these coasts catch turtle,
and reap a plentiful haiwest from the fish-teeming

LILLIPUTIAN FOREST.

59

waters wliicli surround the reef. My predilection
for the study of nature was here gratified by the
sif^ht of several strange creatures. I watched with
curiosity the movements of the horseman-crabSj
lightly skimming over the level sand on the tips of
their toes ; and there were numbers of huge brown
locusts, everywhere leaping about or spinning round
your head with a whirr. A large, downy hum-
ming-bird liawkmoth, with rapidly-vibrating wings
and fan-like tail, hovered incessantly about the

white, many-cleft flowers of the Scaviola Lobelia,
which abounds here. On the outskirts of the
Lilliputian forest were spread verdant carpets, com-
posed of Crassulacese, succulent, thick-leaved plants,
watered by the salt spray, among the damp roots of
which the land-crabs fonn large, deep burrows. As
I wandered on I came to a shallow lagoon, divided
by a tongue of land into two portions. Near the
end of it screw-pines or Pandanus, and a few other
trees, formed quite a pretty miniature picture of a
tropical jungle scene. Madrepore-masses of giant
proportions, left high and dry by tempests, fringed

CO

gannetS.

J

one margin of the lagoon. On tlie coral the pirate-
crabs carried about their homes, and numbers of
them were maundering on the shore, staggering
under their borrowed houses. Wading-birds were
fishing the waters of the shallow lake; saiid23ipers

Avere running over the yielding sands ; snipe were
j)robing the oozy mudbanks round the margin ; and
a few lierons eager for crabs Avere standing on one
leg in the middle of the AA^ater.

1 he number of gannets on the island Avas astound-
ing, the ground in some j)arts being literally strcAfn
Avith their eggs. Their nests Avere shalloAA^, and
com^^osed of straAvs and sticks. In them generally
reposed cither two eggs, or tAvo unfledged, calloAv
young ones, Avith greedy eyes, big heads, and
gaping mouths, straining their necks for food.
Their mothers stood around; and I noticed that
the contents of the pelican-like j)ouch they carry
under their bills chiefly consisted of flying-fish, the
flaAmu’ of Avhich the hungry infant-gannets ajij^eared
fully to apjneciate.

The “ Actmon proceeded to Hong Kong, AATiere

FISHMONGERS.

61

she remained for some time. While we were there,
my companions and myself were accustomed to get
up very early in the morning, and walk to Pok-fo-
lum, about two miles distance, for the sake of bathing
in the rock-basins thetc. In one place, a mountain
torrent rushing down the deep ravine had worn
away the softer portions of the rocks, and hoUowed
them out into deep basins full of cold limpid water
constantly supplied by numerous mimic waterfalls.
In these it was our delight to dive and swim, or to
sit^undcr the waterfalls. The perfect quiet of the
place offered a strange contrast to the hubbub and
bustle which greeted us on our return into the
town, where all were wide awake by this time,
busily engaged in their several occupations; the
swarthy smith hammering on his anvil ; the
fruiterer cutting up his water-melons ; the tailors
squatting on their haunches; the barbers shaving
their customers’ heads/ ears, and eyelids ; and quack
doctors eulogising their wondrous remedies.

This early hour is the time to pay the fish-
mongers a visit. Their ample boards are now

62 “ FISHY ” EXPERIENCES. ^

covered vdtli the proceeds of the thousand fishing
craft that daily crowd the offing. The fish exposed
for sale are not such as we see in fishmongers’ shops
at home. In huge tubs swimming crabs and
marbled cray-fish are kickihg and pushing each
other ; flying-fish and bonitos, lovely even in
death; monster congers, with horrid teeth and
pointed jaws ; crimson-spotted flat-fish, rough spiny
rays, and huge mis-shapen skates ; snaky marbled
eels ; glittering silver i^erch, with sharp s^nny fins ;
here and there a rough brown shark, with evil eye
and grinning mouth ; file-fishes and cow-fishes, in
their shagreen coats-of-mail, and bodies cased in
bony plates; spotted dog-fishes and dragonets;
blenuy-bullheads, with beards hanging from their
lips; silvery, bright, clean-looking scabbard-fishes,
with pointed chins ; the shining dollar-fisli, the red
and grey gurnards, with their great spiny, armour-
plated heads; and the sluggish, freshwater, whis-
kered cat-fishes.

My next fishy ” experience occurred while the
‘‘Actseon” was lying off Macao, near the en-

A FISH OUT OF WATER. C3

X

trance of the Pearl Elver, where every evening
the drum-fishes assembled around the vessel,
and continued their musical humming till about
midnight. My messmate in the next cabin called
out, '‘There go the drum-fishes;” and I would
lie awake and listen to their monotonous drone
on the other side of' the planks which sepa-
rated me from them. The noise rose and fell,
and sometimes suddenly ceased ; and the band
of performers seemed to disperse, as they sought
their food among the barnacles which encrusted
the bottom of the vessel. " Mute as a fish ” is
certainly very expressive, and, as a rule, more-
over, is generally true, though I have heard toad-
fishes grunt pretty loudly when taken out of the
water, " A fish up a tree ” seems almost an im-
possible thing; but have we not all heard of the
climbing perch of India ? " A fish out of water ”

appears strange and unnatural ; l3ut blennies, with
protruding eyes and jointed pectorals, are seen
hopping about the muddy banks of Chinese rivers,
and perching on stray logs like any frogs. With

64

CANTON RIYEii.

fishes tliat fiy or suspend tliemsclves we are all
familiar ; and that certain denizens of the dee]) are
enabled, by means at present unknown, to produce
sounds under water, is a fact no less certain, being
well kno^vn to sea-faring men. Captain Ward tells
me that the drum ” is familiar to the inhabitants
of Charlestown in South Carolina, When he was
lying off that place in the “ Thunder,^' mysterious
humming sounds were heard from time to time pro-
ceeding from the bottom of the ship. These sounds
were generally ascribed to insects in the spirit-room.
One day, however, some ladies visited the ship, and
on hearing the peculiar 'vdbrating noise, exclaimed.

Ah, there's the drum-fish ! " They described it as
of large size, and declared the roe Avas considered
a great delicacy.

hor many folloAving months we remained anchored
in various portions of the Canton Eiver, and took
advantage of our stay to explore several places of
interest, notwithstanding the known treachery of
the natives, and the desultory kind of warfare
Ave AATre noAv engaged in. I accompanied on one

ANCIENT CRANITE QUARRIES.

65

occasion a land-exploring party to tlie ancient granite
quarries, from the granite of which the walls of the
old city of Canton and the numerous huge 'river-
forts were constructed long, long ago. At present
the quarries form vast, gloomy caves and over-
hanging, even-fronted, water- dripping rocks. The
enormous moss-grown boulders and the heapcd-up
masses of old-world lichen-stained granite encom-
pass you on‘ every side, and you seem to be
surrounded by the handiwork of Titans. All is
silent, damp, and sombre. In the dark, deep pools
the harmless water-snakes swim gracefully over the
still surface, or dive beneath the water. The time-
worn caverns and shady nooks, overgrown with
foliase, are the favomcd haunt of the brown owl
and the grey soft-plumaged goat-sucker, which
startle us as they fly out suddenly from the deep
silent chasms of the rock. I was much impressed
on this occasion with the harmony of colour which
exists between animals and the places in which
they reside. A slender lizard, of a brownish-green
coloin, is hardly to be distinguished from the blades

66 BANKS OF THE CHU-KIANG. ^

of grass among wliich it liabitually takes up its
abode ; and a creature somewhat allied to him,
and named gecko, is so freckled and spotted and
blotched with brown, and umber, and bistre, that
you can hardly separate liim from the surface of the
weather-stained granite rocks in the chinks and
crannies of which he passes his existence.

All around these ancient cpiarries frown down
upon us barren, red-tipped hills, rough with scraggy
fir-trees, and crested here and there with wind-bent
pines. On a brown, fissured, rounded hill a tall,
shapely pagoda rises conspicuous, and half buiied in
a sacred grove at the base is an old many-gabled,
dragon-invested joss-house or temple, picturesque,
quaint, and eminently Chinese ; while, indistinct in
the fiir distance, arc the pale grey lofty mountains.

The banks of the Chu-Kiaug, or Pearl Eiver, are
planted at regular intervals with the dark-leaved
li-chee and peach-trees now covered with blossom,
agreeably relieved with chili bushes and clumps of
the pale green, broad-leaved plantain i while the level
padi-fields, half under water, are yellow with heav)^-

SURJ^EY OF THE CEI^RAL FLOWERY LAND. G7

eared rice. The broad river flows cabiily by.

Here and there, stretched *out athwart the stream,

arc countless fishing-stakes, extending in regular,

long rows, with black fishing-nets drying in the

sun, and arranged in festoons on the ropes which

stretch from pole to pole. Little sampans are

floating like so many waterfowl on the water,

di'ifting with the current, and paying out their

fishing-lines furnished with a hundred baited hooks;

poor villagers, dusky, half-clothed figures, are

patiently seeking for cat-fish, or groping for mussels

on the river banks which the tide leaves bare ; up

little narrow creeks cluster hundreds of brown
✓

dome-roofed fishing craft, while conspicuous over
the low land are the tanned square sails of the
trading junks sailing along the distant reaches of
the winding river.

I ascended a neighbouring hill, and from the
summit surveyed the beauty, fertility, and teeming
population of this Central Flowery Land.’' The
brown sides of the old, old granite hill on which I
stood were pitted with innumerable graves of the

68

PKOSPECT Fr5m a hill.

I

humbler classes, and honeycombed with the tombs
of the wealthy. The modest, graves, and the more
pretentious moss-grovm tombs, were overrun and
partially concealed by the smjill-flowered bramble,
the wild rose, and the yellow chrysanthemum,
while vines clung here and there in graceful fes-
toons, and clustered about the angular rock-masses
and the scattered rounded boulders. Stretched
below were green, fertile plains, dotted with villages
more numerous than the eye could count, standing
l)oldly out, or sheltered in groves of dark evergreen
fig-trees. The rich alluvial plains Averc green Avith
garden stuff, or golden Avith the ripe waving fields
of padi, and all Avere Avatered by canals and inter-
secting rivulets, like the Avater-meadoAvs of England
on a gigantic scale.

•69

C^HAPTER VL

An Apology for Beetles — Village Trees — The Buffalo and the Fanqui—
Danes Island — Boy Hunters — Habits of Ants — Flowers compared
with those of England— North and South, a Porcine Contrast-
Reservoirs in Canton — Monster Aquarium — Pond Shell-fish — The
Scaly Ant-eater — Master Wouff and “Scales.”

On approacliing the villages I saw the hanging
branches and dark foliage of the shining fig-tree
(Ficus nitida), and the hoary limbs of the great
Bombax Cepa, entirely bare of foliage, but covered
with magnificent scarlet flowers. The bamboos were
really grand j the finest I had ever seen. Under
the clumps of this huge gvass, which here grows
forty feet high, I found a pleasant shelter from the
sun, and — a few beetles. iVmong them a pale
yellow kind, a giant among lady-birds. On the
ground, among the dead leaves, instled a glistening
• brown lizard, and about the roots mole-crickets ran
timidly along, or lazily scraped the moist earth

70

APOLOGY FOPv BEETLES.

with mole-like paws. As for beetles, they abounded
everywhere !

Perhaps it may seem absurd to lavish praise and
bestow regard upon creatures not usually viewed
with feelings of love or admiration, but I must agam
confess I have a liking for beetles. ‘‘ A beetle is a
beauty in the eye of its mother,” says the Arabic
proverb, and, I may add, in the eyes of the ento-
mologist also. Be that as it may, I shall add here
that, in whatever direction I looked, I found won-
derfully fashioned creatures of this tribe, shining
and bejewelled, and nicely adapted to the place of
their abode. Under the surface of the bamboo
leaves 1 observed the giant lady-bird ; in the grass
lurked a spiny tortoise - beetle ; clinging to the
stems was a black and red flower-beetle ; on the
wing disported a bright little unicorn-beetle ; on
the ground crept a soberly bedight, soft-brown
chaffer ; on the stones shone a glittering gold-
beetle ; under the oolam trees I discovered a dull-
green fellow ; on the trefoil leaves in the sunny pea
fields were sun-beetles and gold-beetles. Besides

VILLAGE TREES,

71

these were ca large reel Iloria and a perfect little
gem of a Callistes.

At the period of my visit it was the season of the
oTceii leaf and flower. The low wooden houses

C5

were environed hy the guava and the orange tree,
their boughs bent down with grateful fruit.
Mingled with these were the dark-leaved fig-tree,
the privet -like Ancistrobolus, the rich purple
leaves of the Psychotria, and the Gardenia florida,
always a favourite with the Clunese on account of
its fragiunt flowers. These village trees were haunted
by yellow-banded wasps, and heavy-boctied saw-
flies. Lurking among the foliage w^ere golden-
spotted beetles, while, poised in mid-air, on vibra-
tino" winofs, wore clear-bodied flies and bee-like
insects named Bombylii. Artfully disposed among
the bristling thorns of a Palinurus bush, I espied
the nest of a little slender brown biixl, well defended
and snug, bidding defiance to snakes and other
harmful creatures.

As I returned to the ship I observed a water
buffalo plodding steadily across a padi field, the

72

DA^«ES ISLAND.

rude wooden plough turning up the soil behind
her. These unlovely, mud-incrusted ruminants
seem to think with the Turk that ‘‘ of aU devils
the very worst of devils is a Frank in a round hat,”
for no sooner does the unwieldly creature scent the
“ Fanqui,” than she stops abruptly, snorts, trembles,
and — is off ! Nose in air, and horns flat back, she
splashes through the watery glebe, the plough at
her tail. The vexed Chinaman gazes helplessly
after his unruly charge, but, soon, to the great
relief of the unfortmiate husbandman, up comes
a little boy who whispers soft nonsense in the
vagrant’s ear, and leads her back, a willing captive,
by the rope made fast to the cartilage of her nose.

Danes Island, like all the other islands in the
river, rises from the bed of the Chu-Kiang as a
primary granite-mass. Its green rounded hills arc
covered with a scanty vegetation, and pitted with
the scooped-out graves of many generations of
Chinese. A layer, more or less deej), of red and
white sandstone, rests uj)on the granite, and be-
tween the hills are valleys with a rich alluvial

73

PRESENT FOR THE “ ESUNG.”

bottom, where pumpkins, melons, rice, peas, beans,
grouhcl-nuts, and sweet potatoes form vast vegetable
gardens. The terraced sides of the more barren hills
are planted with the ookm or olive, the li-chee and
the peach. The villagers are harmless, but now
and then get into trouble for supposed insults to the
British hag, but what then ? — “ Every day is not a
Feast of Lanterns.”

Under the shade of the dark-leaved firtrees,
where repose the dead of the mild, intelligent
Parsees, I loved to sit upon a gravestone and feast
on the cool, pink hesh of water melons. While I
was thus regaling myself on one occasion, a brown,
pig-tailed, bare-legged urchin came panting, almost
breathless, up the hill. He bore a home-made
bamboo-box, to which a crumpled leaf served for a
cork. This he eagerly withdrew as he approached
me, and revealed the head of a large yellow centi-
pede, whose unpleasant body seemed very much
inclined to follow. This entomological capture,
offered with a smile of conscious pride, was a
present for the Esung.” These village urchms

74

BOY HUNTERS.

were great allies of mine. They showed as mueii
ardour in the chase as any naturalist, nor could a
legion of Ariels have served their master Prospero
better than these dusky inr|^)s did me.

"When, with their narrow gleaming eyes, they saw
me discard the disjecta membra ” of the great
black copris, the dung of the buffalo was forthwith
scattered to the winds, and dozens of the living
beetles were disentombed and brought to me.
They kneAv the haunts of skink, mouse, bird, and
beetle. Did I desire an ant-lion ? They were
immediately under the oolam trees, blowing away
the sandy soil with their breath, till they spied the
lurking lion in his den, hiding in a Iiole on one
side of the pitfall, his long poweiful jaws being just
visible in the centre. As they scratched him out
they sang a little ditty ap2>ropriatc to the occasion.
Did I want a frog ? A slight pencil sketch of the
creature was shown them, and off scampered these
pig-tailed Ariels, returning in ten minutes with as
many frogs as would feast a dozen Frenchmen. In-
fants of tender years would join in the sport, and

ANTS.

75

when success had crowned their efforts, would
toddle up bashfully with a locust or some other
prize struggling in their tiny paws. One little
fellow was bitten by a large spider which he had
courageously seized, and, as he presented his
captive, he pointed with tearful eyes to his swollen
finger.

Tlie ants of this island arc a very interesting
study. One species of a yellowish hue, with very
long legs and aiitennse, liuilds large nests in the
oolam trees by bending down and joining together
the leaves. The jaws of these ants are strong and
toothed, and pierce the edges of the leaves, when a
viscid sap exudes, which soon hardens in the air,
and cements the leaves together. Another ant, with
a roundish body covered with a grey pubescence,
forms cylindric holes in the ground, with an
elevated tubular shaft an inch or more above the sur-
face, composed of grains of sand. iVnother solitary
ant jumps about the pathAvays like a Saltica, or
hunting-spider. This is a curious elongated species,
with a great head and thorax, and with the

76

FLOWERS.

mandibles produced in front, forming a long pair
of forceps, curving slightly upwards. My friend
Mr. Frederick Smith, to whom I presented a speci-
men, told me its name, but I have forgotten it.

Although not specifically the same, the flowers I
met with in my walks reminded me of those in
England. The Oxalis is yellow-flowered, and does
not produce so pleasant an acid as our owui wood-
sorrel ; the shepherd’s-purse appears to be the same
as ours ; the groundsel is represented by Emilia
sonchifolia ; the Persicaria is replaced by Poly-
gonum chinense ; the woolly Gnaphalium resembles
that which grows in waste places in England;
instead of the harebell we have here the Wahlen-
bergia agrestis ; and in place of the bindweed, we
find the Evohoilus emarginatus, with its trumpet-
like flowers. By the margin of a running stream,
springing in numbers from the fresh green sod, I
saw the Spiranthes australis, a delicate little orchid
reminding one of S. aestivaEs and familiar Hamp-
shire meadows.

In the deep, damp fissures of the ground, the

riGS OF NORTH AND SOUTH CHINA.

77

red coral-like coiymbs of Ixora stricta were con-
spicuous ; and on tlie wliite dilated calyx-segments
of Mussaenda erosa I found clustered a pretty
beetle called Hoplia, with a silvery-grey pubescence.
The long segments of the crimson-spotted flowers
of Strophanthus arrested *my attention as I
approached the precincts of a village, and I stopped
to gather the sweet-scented' corymbs of Cleroden-
dron fragrans. I also sniffed an odour not so
pleasing, and peeping over a bamboo fence I
observed a piggery ! And this fact reminds me of
the great difference between the social and physical
condition of the pigs of the north and the pigs of
the south of China.' The pig of the south lies in
a clean sty, and is well cared for. She has a short,
wrinkled face, glutton eyes, swollen cheeks, a
sunken back, short legs, and a pendidous belly,
and she waddles stolidly along with a kind of
semi -somnolent complacency. The pig of the
north, on the contrary, has to take care of himself,
and judging from his physique, he is able to do so.
He is a black, hirsute, active and irascible pachy-

78

RESERVOIRS IX CANTON.

derm, witlx a lean body, long legs, a 'wedge-like
head, a bristling crest, an inquisitive nose, a wicked,
vigilant eye, a straight tufted tail, and a shrill,
angiy voice.

The numerous ponds within the walls of the city
of Canton are intended as reservoirs of water iii
case of fire. They are by no means filthy or
muddy receptacles, but resemble in beauty and
cleanliness the parlour ponds and aquatic vivaria
of our gardens on a large scale. The surface is
covered with a mass of bright green fioating vege-
tation; while the margins are fringed with crisp and
juicy esculent vegetables. The water below teems
with carp, dace, and other fish which live upon the
fresh-water mollusks, these in their turn feeding
on the superabundant vegetable matter. The pond
shell-fish consist of a species of Sphserium, and one
or two kinds of Vivipara, or Paludina. One of the
fish, a species of Ophiocephalus, has no teeth in the
jaws, but the pharynx is provided with a pah of
j)owerful supplementary maxillae armed with formid-
able serrated teeth, Avhich play against a hard,

SCALY ANT-EATER.

79

rough, bony palate, ami so crush the shells of the
mollusks on which it feeds.

Seen from the porcelain pagoda, these verdurous
ponds appear as oases in a desert of tiles.

Two living specimens of the scaly ant-eater
(Manis javaiiica) having come under my notice,
some account of its habits, as far as I was
enabled to make them out, may be acceptable. The
first was a female, and rejoiced in the sobriquet
of “ Scales.’' She was crepuscular, and remained
coiled up in a ball during the day, secure in her
scaly panoply. At the approach of night, however,
she grew lively. A creature whose habits require
to be studied by the aid of a dark lantern, must
needs be interesting even to the most incurious
observer ; and a lizard-like mammal, whose every
movement and attitude is probably a living illus^
tration of those great extinct quadrupeds which
once peopled the earth before man was created,
must surely have the power of arresting the atten-
tion, if not of stimulating the imagination, of all
who desire to penetrate the secrets of Nature.

so

MADAM “ SCALES.”

I doubt not Professor Owen would have lain prone
on liis stomach all the livelong night to watch the
evolutions of this gnome-like mountaineer, in whose
aspect, as she prowled about at night, there was some-
thing old-world and weird-like. The Scotch would
say she had an “ uncanny ” look ; and truly, if but
ten times bigger, she would have immistakeably re-
minded one of the times before the Deluge. When
she walked, she trod gingerly on the bent under
claws of her fore feet, and more firmly on the palms
of her hind feet. A very favourite attitude with her
Avas that assumed by her gigantic extinct analogue,
the ^lylodon, as seen in the Avondrous model of
AVaterhouse Hawkins in the gardens of the Crystal
Palace. The fore-feet in my '' Afadam Scales ” AA^ere
raised ; and the animal was supported by the strong
hind limbs, and the firm, flattened, poAverful muscu-
lar tail, the head and body being at the same time
moved from side to side, and the little round
prominent eyes peering cautiously about in cA^ery
direction. In Avalking, the fouidh toe of the hind
foot Avas also extended. The Chinese, in their sly

“ WOUFF ” AND “ SCALES.”

81

manner, said that she pretended to be very quiet ;
but s’pose no man lookee,” she run. very fast.
She was certainly of an exceedingly timid and
retiring disj)osition, tucking in her head between
her fore-legs on the least alarm. So apathetic a
(piadmped appeared our Pangolin ” (for so was
she called by the I\Ialays), that, coiled up in a
strong net, I considered her properly secured, and
carefully deposited her in my cabin. No sooner,
however, had the last gleam of light vanished from
my little scuttle,” than she knew the period of her
lethargy had expired, and, bursting the trammels
of her hempen toil, she roamed abroad. The first
intimation I had of her escape was the ominous
bark of Master “ Wouff,” a clever little terrier on
board. The dog, puzzled by the cpieer scaly rat he
had suddenly encountered, regarded with imjjotent
rage the lizard -like intruder; while ‘^Scales,” secure
in her coat of mail, bid defiance to the attacks of
her canine assailant.

The scaly ant-eater is called by the Chinese of
Quang - tung, ‘ ' Chun - shau - c^p,” which literally

G

m

MAKIS JAVANICA.

•

means Scaly hill - borer.” They also name it
“ Ling-li,” or “ Hill-carp.” It seems to be regarded
by them as truly “ a fish out of water,” though it
lives in the sides of the great mountains. They say
it lays a trap for insects by erecting its scales,
which suddenly closing o’li the entrance of flies, ants,
&c., these intruders are secured, and, when dead, fall
out and are eaten. It is also said to feed upon fish ;
but both these stories appear to be m}i;hs, some-
thing similar to those told of our own familiar
‘‘hedge-pig” sucking the teats of cows, and im-
paling apples on her quills in the orchards.

Tlie Manis javanica is sdld in the markets at
Canton, and is often carried about the streets as a
curiosity. The scales are employed by the Chinese
for medicinal pui’jmses ; but the flesh does not
appear to be eaten, though it is very excellent food
wlien roasted, as I can testify from personal experi-
ence, having had a portion of the defunct “ Scales ”
cooked.' The IManis climbs very well, and can sus-
pend itself head downwards b)" means of its strong
flat tail. We fed our “Scaly hill-borers” on raw

83

DEATH OF “scales.”

♦

eggs cand chopped raw beef, on which they seemed
to thrive. The nnfortimate “ Scales ” fell a victim
to female enriosity. Exploring the hold of the ship
in one of her midnight rambles, she was lost for a
time, and though she at length found her way back
to her box, she was so exhausted by long abstinence
that she died of starvation.

84

t

CHAPTER VII.

Stroll through Villages on the Yang-tsze-Kiang— Spring-time — The Pupa
Gatherer— How to fatten Ducks— Characteristic Scene— Banks
of the Great Iliver— Freshwater CTahs — Eriocheir Japonicus —
Youthful Poachers — The Mina Bird— Adventures of a Thousand-
legs.

A STROLL tliroiigli tlie straggling villages on the
hanks of the Yang-tsze-Kiang is pleasant enongh
in the spring. Along the level hund, coolies are
carrying burdens at the end of bamboos, rich men
are riding in couples on Avheelbarrows, a little-
footed woman is toddling awkwardly along, and a
shaven priest in a dingy robe is stalking solemnly
by. The peculiarity of their appearance, and the
novelty of theii’ costume, at once interest and
amuse the stranger.

Inland is seen a vast, green, cultivated plain,
with scattered farms and hamlets, and their atten-
dant white goats and hungry yelping curs. An aged

BANKS OF THE YANG-TSZE-KIANG.

85

crone is usually spinning at tlie open door. There
are ducks in the dykes which always encircle the
houses, and in the elm and willow trees are the
himiliar magpies and mina-hirds. As the fields are
now dry, rice, j^^idi-birds, and frogs are gone ; not
even a land-crab sidles along the muddy banks.
All around the yellow blossoms and snowy pods of
the cotton are mingled with the foxglove flowers of
Sesamum, from the seeds of which an oil is ex-
pressed. AVheat and barley form undulating fields,
together with purple tares and sweet-scented flower-
ing beans. A granite arch, dedicated to filial
piety, often rears its quaint form above the cotton-
fields, and everpvhere wooden coffins are seen ex-
posed in the open air. TJ\e grassy grave mounds
are yellow with Chrysanthemum chinense, and from
them is heard the sibilant song of the gfassliopper-
lark. The pheasant crows in the young corn, and
the pretty ringdove flies across the path to join her
mate in the bamboo thicket.

The banks of the river are covered with violets
and dandelions, mixed with patches of yellow

86

PUPA GATHERER.

TliaumatojDsis, and, wlaat is rare in these southern
latitudes, with the blue flowers of a little gentian.
The as2>ect of the country, on the whole, suggests a
favourable view of the people ; the scene presented
is one of smiling j)lenty. The natives, evidently an
industrious race, are everywhere busy, and may be
seen tending their goats, weeding their crops, or
threshing out the last year’s padi. While the women
are carefully tending the cotton j^lants, the men are
engaged in the more laborious occupation of turning
the sod, and crushing the clods with their lieav}^
four-pronged hoes, the children at the same time
gathering esculent leaves.

Turning my eye in one direction, I perceived
an individual with ba^et on arm, surveying the
willows with inquiring eye. I was curious to kno\v
on what he was intent, and observed his motions. By
means of a little sickle at the end of a loner bamboo
he ever and anon detached brown swinging cradles
from the slender boughs, and deposited them in his
basket. I learned from himself that he was a pupa-
gatherer, and that those tiny mummy-like objects

BEGINNING OF SUMMER.

87

of liis solicituile were the pupa-cases of a species of
moth. When I humbly desired to know the use to
which these accumulated grubs were to be put, the
face of the old man relaxed into a smile, and he did
his best to assume the appearance of a duck gob-
bling up imaginary fat grubs with impatient greedi-
ness and noise. From this pantomime I gathered
that he was collecting food for his ducks ; for this
is one of the several ways which they have of
fattening ducks in China.

In the beginning of summer, when the Principia
utilis, which in winter time is nothing but a tangled
mass of green thorns, teems with milk-white Howers,
and swanns with bees ; when the edges of the
narrow paths are gay wi^ the white and pink
coronals of AnthyUis, about which wasps are Hying,
vigilant and bustling ; when in all waste places the
blue flowers of Veronica mingle with the milk-white
stars of Stellaria, and in the far* distance a puce-
coloured mass of peach blossoms contrasts with the
green willows ; when those long-beaked hairy flies,
the bombylii, hover over the hob narrow paths, like

8S CHARACTERISTIC SCENE.

" X

so many lilli2xitiaii liimiming-birds, * and yellow-
legged bees settle on tlie sim-briglit s23ots ; then you
are startled in your walks by strange guttural
noises which seem to come from beneath your feet,
but which 2:>roceed in reality from the iris leaves
that margin the river's brink. There, moored in
some secluded shallow s}}ot, is seen a long-roofed
boat, shajDed like Noah s Ark, with a sloping board
leading into the reeds and sedges. A little l)oy
watches all day long his greedy charges, keeping
tliem in order l>y means of a slender wand witli a
bit of rag at the end. At daybreak down swarm
the ducks into the frog-peopled swamp, and at
sunset they are driven back, and .waddle uj) the
ladder by which tliey gain access to their roosting
place.

There is a wide marshy plain at the junction of
the ^^nosung and Yang-tsze rivers, with mudflats
stretching away for miles. Here the uncouth
l)uffaloes delight to wallow in the ooze ; the white
padi-birds stand in a row at the edge of the water ;
and far in the distance, like a sentry at his outpost,

BANKS OF THE GREAT RIVER.

89

watches the gray solitary heron. A flock of teal
settles clown in the water, and the sparkling surface

of the river is dotted with brown-sailed junks. A

*

vole or field-mouse sometimes runs across your
path, or the gliding form of a snake is seen vanish-
ing in the grass.

Towarcls evening, frogs are demonstrative, croak-
ing loudly and without cessation, and leaping
by hundreds down the banks of the dykes and
streams. Now these merry batrachians arc good
for ducks, and Chinamen arc particularly fond
of Jut ducks. The natural result is that, at
this “ witching hour of night,” silent boys and old
patient men are seen in these frog -haunted pre-
cincts, a long bamboo rod in their hand, and a
string baited with a worm, angling for frogs ! In
my homeward walks, when the brown owl swooped
down and settled on the cotton fields, and the huge
black shard-beetle flew across my face, I often fell
in with an old, man bending under the weight of a
hamper of frogs, the produce of his evening s

90

SWAMPY PLAINS.

On the banks of the Great Eiver are tracts of
low swampy laud, irreclaimable even by the patient
industry of the Chinese husbandman. These tracts
ai*e haunted by curlews, snipe, and plover, while
water-buffaloes, attended by groups of noisy niina-
birds, alternately ruminate and wallow in the mire.
Scattered over these swamj^y plains are certain
sedgy pools, the water of which, though it looks
black, is veiy clear. The bottom is of soft mud, and
from it gi’ow the reed, the iris, and the bullrush,
fringing the peaty margin. Over their emerald
swords and spears often hangs the little blue-backed
kingfisher, and up to his knees in water stands
watchfully the snow-white padi-bii'd. In these
ponds there is i ]0 lack of fish, and their waters are
peopled with noisy frogs. Some portions of the
adjoining ground are pierced like a colander with
holes, which are the work of the “crab with a
bloody hand 1 ”

As in England boys take possession of j)Onds,
moorlands, and commons, and disport themselves
therein, not only robbing the humble-bee and

EKIOCHEIR JAPONICUS.

91

stoning the frogs, hut causing much trouble and
uneasiness to the gamekeeper — so do the urchins of
the Flowery Land resort to these oozy pools for
useful sport or idle recreation. With an artfully-
fashioned wicker basket, narrow at the top and
sloping at the sides, the pig-tailed boy advances
cautiously into the yielding mud, probes with his
toes the overhanging banks, or plunges both his
arms beneath the spongy roots. The object of his
search, when captured, is adroitly transferred to the
basket hung about his neck, and on examination
turns out to be the Eriocheir japonicus, or the
“^crab with a hahy hand.” This creature is of a
dark olive hue, freckled and flat-backed, apathetic
in his disposition, by no means nimble on his pins,
nor aggressive with his hirsute claws. Placed on
the ground, he shambles along sideways towards
the water, never moving in an inland direction,
and, when possible, speedily makes himself invisible
beneath the soft black mud. Strolling through the
unsavoury purlieus of the village of Woosung, I
noticed in all the fish-shops long strings of these

92

SPPJNG,

crabsj which, from their abundance in the market,
seemed to be admired articles of diet amons; the
poorer Chinese. For half-a-mace I purchased two
strings, each of nine fulhgrowii “crabs with the
hairy hand.”

In many a sunshiny walk to the Bubbling Wells
or to the Pagoda, my only and nearly constant com-
panions were the mina-birds and the ]3oor worm
Avhose peculiarities I have described below. I was
familiar with these two all the way there and back
again, for the huge-bodied buffiilo and the yelping
dog, the oblique-eyed child or the little-footed
woman, were but casual roadside acquaintances.

The sky at this time of tlie year (the month of
IVIarch), <md Avhen the weather is fine, is of a pale
blue, and the fields, with their fresh crops of young
Avheat, are of a beautiful emerald-green. At this
period the first swallow makes its aj)pearance,
harbinger of spring, always welcomed with joy.
The quaint little children spread over the fields,
which are not enclosed by hedges, were always to

MINA BIRD.

93

me a most pleasant and amusing spectacle. They
were constantly busy, filling tlieir small baskets
with every esculent leaf and blade not sovui by
man. The Composite and Cruciferae were the
principal objects of their search, the knowing
urchins carefully avoiding deleterious Euphorbiacese.

In this part of China the myriapod crawls in
every sunny path ; and in the air above hum the
early andrsenas — for the other bees are not yet out
— diligently seeking, with steady zigzag flight,
their food in • every flower. At this early period,
the insect world is not yet fliirly roused from its
winter sleep. A glittering black Staphylinus occa-
sionally alights upon the path, a dull Ajihodius
falls down before you, or an adventurous land-crab
makes an experimental trip from one hole to
another on a sunny mud-bank. The dykes are
filled with little pellucid fish, Avith big heads and
large golden eyes.

As for the mina-bird, he is every whei'e. As you
pass tlirough the settlement, a loud cheery note
salutes your car, and on looking about to thank

94

MYRIAPODS.

the feathered vocalist, you see, perched upon the
cornice of the tallest house, a mina, solitary, but
apparently on good terms with himself, piping at
intervals in the fulness of his joy. AVhile the old
women are sitting in groups before their doors, busy
with their spinning and their cotton-pods, the mina-
birds dispute the crumbs with the ducks and the
fowls. Among tlie buffaloes in the marsh by the
rivers brink, familiar and noisy, they gather in
little flocks, perching on the heads and backs of
their flat-horned, mud-covered companions, or re-
fresh themselves by making short excursions to the
adjacent homesteads. From the bamboo and fir-
tree j)lantations, which make the temples so pic-
turesque, issue forth their clear, sweet notes,
mingled vdth the impudent “ quirk, quirk ” of the
magpie, the harsh screech* of the long-tailed butcher-
bii’d, the noisy chatter of the blue jay, and the
familiar chirp of the homely sjiarrow.

On every path, where tlie sun is at his
brightest, the myriapods, or thousand-legs, may be
seen urging their way onward, ‘‘with a heart for

ADVENTURES OF A THOUSAND-LEGS.

95

any fate.” Like their brother worms with legs less
numerous, they are supremely ignorant of the
sayings and doings of the powers above, and pre-
ferring the dry sunny paths to the scented bean
fields and the shelter of the cotton-plants, they get
crushed under the Juggernaut wheels of Chinese
hand-barrows, or beneath the ponderous tread of
labouring coolies. Differing in this respect from
most of his consimilars, who are of retiring habits,
and love the seclusion of rotting logs, or seek the
shelter of stones, our mpiapod seems to love the
sun. It is always curious to watch his movements.
The great hulking spider which he encounters jerks .
himself out of the way ; he goes without flinching
thi'ougli the serried ranks of a little foraging party
of ants, or, if he cannot go through them, he
marches over them ; fissures, which to him must be
frightful chasms, he boldly encounters • hillocks, in
his eyes rugged mountains, he faces and surmounts
with ease. With unfailing energy he works his
“ myriad ” legs, seeking in his progress — who knows
what 1 To me, who have so often watched his

96

CEASPEDOSOMA VAGABUNBA.

wanderings, liis object still seems pni’poseless : 1
have not fathomed the mystery of his life. Un-
heeded, he passes by the charming bells of Mazus
13ulchellus, a pigmy beauty, whose blossoms nearly
touch the earth ; he 2 >ushes under bits, of straw and
withered blades of grass ; he evades the fallen
cotton pods, the beards of barley, and the awns
of rice ; he disregards the thistle-down and the
feathered seeds that lie in his way ; he Avill reject a
putrid land-crab, and turn up his (metaj^horical)
nose at a dead snail ; he inclines towards a crushed
fungus, but on second thoughts is not partial to
toadstools; he makes for a decayed fragment of
wood, but he does not banquet on that. As he
crawls, he perpetually forms “lines of grace and
beauty,'' by the lateral undulations of his mobile
body. I have named him Craspedosoma vagabimda !

97

CHAPTER YIIL

Miatau Islands — ^Probable Origin of some Stories about Sea-serpents —
Alceste Island— Seals — Fishing Connorant— The Blue Roek-pigeon
— Kala-hai — A Fishing Party — Bustards— Snake-like Fishes — Gulf
of Pecheli — Strange-looking Craft — Native Fishermen — A Shower
of Beetles— The Black Surf-Duck.

While on board the ship of which I was sur-
geon, an incident occurred which, I think, deserv^es
to be recorded as an illustration of optical delusion
that might have become a source of error, and given
rise to yet another story of the famed sea-serpent.
We w’-ere sailing among the islands of the Miatau
group, at the entrance of the Gulf of Pecheli.
There was little vdnd, and gentle ripples covered
the surface of the sea. I was sipping my Congou
at the open port of the ward-room on the main
deck, and while 1 was admiring the setting sun,
watching the rounded outlines of the blue moun-
tains and distant islands against the sky, and

H

98

SUSPICIOUS-LOOKING OBJECT.

wondering at the number of sea-birds wheeling
rock wards to their nests, my^ eye rested on a long
dark object apparently making its way steadily
through the water. After observing it some time
in silence, I was sorely puzzled, and could make
nothing of it. As it was evidently neither a seal,
a diver, nor a fishing cormorant, with the forms of
which I was familiar, I went on deck to consult
other eyes than my own. Sundiy glasses were
brought to bear on the suspicious-looking object,
and after long scrutiny it seemed to be generally
decided that it was a large snake, about ten feet

long (much longer, according to some,) working its

<

w\ay vigorously against the tide by lateral undula-
tions of the body. So strong was this conviction,
that the course of the ship was altered, and a boat
was got rea:dy for lowering. With a couple of
loaded revolvers, some boat-hooks and a fathom or
so of lead-line, I made ready for the encounter,
intending to range up alongside, shoot the reptile
through the head, make him fast by a clove-hitch,
and tow him on board in triumph ! By this time,

ALCESTE ISLAND.

99

however, a closer and more critical inspection had
taken place, and the supposed sea-monster turned
out to be, in reality, a long dark root of a tree,
gnarled and twisted, and secured to the moorings
of a fishing net ; the strong tide j^assing it rapidly,
giving it an apparent life-like movement and
serpentine aspect.

*****

“ Alceste Island,”— the name of which recalls the
splendours of a former Embassy to China, and
many pleasant associations connected with the
Narrative of Staunton, and the Voyages of
Captains Maxwell and Basil Hall, not forgetting

j

Surgeon Macleod's “Voyage of the Alceste,” — is
a little high island, placed to the north of the
extremity of the Shan-tung Promontoiy, the
easternmost continuation of the lofty peninsula
which forms the Province of Shan-tung. On
the rocks above water which form a portion of
the reef that extends about a mile round the
island, lie huddled together numbers of seals,
which, on our approach in the boat, all tumble

100

BLUE ROCK-PIGEONS.

‘off into the water. The fishing cormorant evi-
dently thinks these rocks an eligible station, and
from them the captain, as he pulled ashore in
his galley, shot a beautiful white spoonbill with
a lemon-coloured crest. Geese, ducks and gulls
are congregated together here in goodly numbers.
The blue rock-pigeon appears to have regularly
taken possession of, and to have colonised, Hai-
leu,” which is the proj)er Chinese name of the
island. The number and variety of other birds
which make it their dwelling-place is remarkable.
Swallows build in the caves which are hollowed
out in parts of the huge trachyte cliffs, and here
and there, on a giant pinnacle, is found a secure
eyrie for the eagle and the kite.

In the chasms of the deep precipices, wtere the
sun glints on vast surfaces of shining silvery
micaceous schist, on narrow ledges of white
gleaming trachyte, and on the Iffack, frowning,
weather-stained, lichen-spotted masses which over-
hang the little bays, are seen blue rock-pigeons,
walking about, cooing, l)Owdng to each other, and

BAYS.

101

daintily preening tlieir feathers. One is quietly
perched on a slender graceful spray, which waves
in the wind from one of the fissures half-way down
a perpendicular wall of rock many hundred feet in
descent ; while others near the top seem to be
paying each other polite attentions on green carpets
fragrant with the scent of wild blossoming thyme.
Hundreds fly out from the side of the cliff on the
report of a gun, and after a short excursion return
again to the security of their rocky homes. A
brown owl maintains her ancient solitary reign ”
in the secret recesses. Numbers of pretty hoopoes
are flitting about in their peculiar jaunty manner,
raising and depressing their crests, and archly
coquetting with one another. Large kites and
hawks," of which I have observed two species, sail,
poised on outspread wings, high above the island ;
linnets utter their short pleasing notes as they rise
in clouds ; and a quail is shot in the high grass at
the summit.

The little bays which indent the base of the
island are paved with smooth rounded pebbles

102

KALA-HAI.

of felspar and transparent quartz, and are peaceful
enough to batlie in, but on the weather side the
surf thunders against the rough barnacle -clad
boulders, and the war of flint, and water is in-
cessant.

Above fifty miles west of the point of Shan-tung
Ave observed a narrow harbour, formed by a deep
bight of the coast, and which ends in a creek
running over a plain, half grassy and half sandy.
This Avas Kala-hai, but it is not marked in the
charts. At the entrance Ave found a’ fishing party
very busy curing cod and skate, soles and sharks.
Their boats Avere hauled up in the sand and their
nets spread out to dry, Avhile all hands under a
shed, half buried in heaps of fish, were cleaning
and salting Avdth true Chinese industry.

As AA^c folloAved the course of the creek, Ave found
the view bounded seaward by desolate, undulating
sand-hills, and landAA^ard by green, pleasant slopes
and Aullages buried in trees. On the sward, be-
tween the salt-Avater lagoon and the sand-hills,
herds of neat little oxen Avere grazing placidly.

OPHIOID FISHES.

103

On the sandy mud of the half-dry lagoon, a little
roundabout crab, taken c[uite by surprise, was seen
quickly scuttling into holes, or with great pre-
cipitancy hiding himself in the soft sand. In
muddy parts, bivalve mollusks, buried in the mud,
were throwing up from their syphons little watery
jets. On the sand-hills the bustards were walking
about like turkeys, feeding on the dry fruit of a
plant unknown to me, or pausing suddenly in their
confident strut, with head on one side and out-
stretched neck. Their quick eye soon saAV the
strangers, and with a short cry they all ran
towards each other, and rose in a little flock of
from ten to twenty,

’Any particulars concerning ophioid fishes will,
I am sure, be welcome ; and have I not a right to
speak about snake-fishes ? Did I not capture, in
the middle of the South Atlantic, a fish which, if
it had measured fourteen feet instead of fourteen
inches, would have created far more astonishment
than the Regalecus Jonesii (Newsman) ? My fish,
(Ncmichthys scolopacea, Eichardson), taken in the

104

SILVERY HAIR-TAIL.

towing-net, and even now without a place in the
ichthyological system, much more resembled a sea-
serpent than Regalecus. It was scaleless and had
sharj^-pointed teeth, inclined backwards like those
of a serpent. The body was ophioid and spotted on
the sides ; the eye was large and conspicuous ; the
jaws were very long, the gape was wide ; and the

back was furnished with a series of rays which

«

extended, crest-like, from the nape to the end of
the tail, which had no caudal fin.

There is a figure of it, from my drawing, in the
“ Zoology of the Samarang.” Who shall say it w;as
not the fry of a very formidable spar-snapping sea
monster ? But my present ol)ject is to show^ that
Swainson is in error, w^hen he says of the ribbon-
fishes, These meteoric fishes aj^pear to live in the
gi’catest depths,” &c. My^ experience to the con-
trary is founded on the silvery hair-tail (Trichiurus
lepturus, Linn.), one of the largest of the flattened
small-scaled fishes. At Staunton Island, Shan-
tung, we obtamed large numbers, averaging five
feet in length, including the slender caudal filament.

FISHING RAFTS.

105

It is common along many other parts of the coasts
of Northern China, and in the Korea, when salted
and dried, it forms an important item in the diet of
the people. It is most delicate eating, and when cut
in lengths and fried, makes a very pretty dish. The
bones are so few and easy to separate, that even a
hungiy man may partake of it without fear of
being choked. Everywhere it is taken on the
surface, at a considerable distance from the land.
* Off the Regent’s Sword, or Liauti-shan Promontory,
. great numbers of strange-looking craft in the form
of rude rafts put boldly out to sea, with long black
nets coiled up snugly in the middle, four men
working at huge sculls, while the others smoke and
chat. The net is paid out in a circle, and when
the end is reached, it is turned back and hauled
in, securing frequently l^rge numbers of the silvery
hair-tail. Many hundreds of these rafts surrounded
the ship as she sailed through them in the glow of a
glorious sunset.

A few nights before the landing of the allied
forces at the Pei-ho an interesting phenomenon

106

SHOWER OF BEETLES.

was visible, namely, that of mock moons and a
double rainbow. A circumstance, moreover, which
suj)erstitious Chinamen might also regard as a
portent, but which the naturalist would certainly
look upon with interest, Avas a shower of beetles.
A black sjDecies of Ehizotragus (a sort of chaffer)
fell dowD upon the ships in countless numbers. Our
aAvnings Avere spread, and the beetles descended
continuously all the first Avatch. Numbers AA^ere
crushed and trodden into the deck, leaving greasy
patches A\diich it required the carpenter’s plane to
obliterate. They afforded constant excitement to
“Belle,” a beautiful retricA’'er, AAdio passed the
night in chasing and cruuching them between her
teeth. In the morning heaps of the dead and
Avounded Avere SAvept into corners and under guns.
Coal-black lines, folloAAung ^the ripples of the tide,
stretched aAA^ay for miles doAAUi the Gulf, formed
entirely of the droAAmed bodies of these insects.

On the Shan-tung side of the Gulf of Pecheli is
a remarkable promontory AAoth a flat, sandy neck,
and a saddle-head of granite. This from a distance

SURF DUCK AKD SADDLE POINT.

107

looks like an island, but on a nearer jjcquaintance
its true nature is obvious. Tlie Surf Duck and
Saddle Point go together in my mind and refuse
to be separated, so you cannot have one without
the other. A gale of wind had swept over the
Gulf the day previously, and the water was now
unsettled and turbid. A dull haze, formed of fine
sand, filled the air, and a “mirage” caused every-
thing at a distance to look distorted, and to assume
an unreal appearance. As we landed we en-
countered at first nothing but the glare of the
sand. Along the margin of the shallow bay, and
in the seaweedy pools left by the receding tide,
were countless myriads of lady-birds, drovmed, like
Pharaolfis host, in the waters of the sea. They had
been blown from the opposite coast, and were now
driven up by the waves in ridges miles long and in
red heaps among the hollows and comers of the
outcropping granite rocks. Here and there we
came across a magnificent swimming -crab ; but
these waifs and strays were just as eagerly
sought after by lean, hungry cormorants and loud-

108

SALT-WATEE SWAMP.

screaming gulls as by inquisitive peripatetic
naturalists, who only came, in for a scattered
mass of fragments too hard and spiky even for
the maw of cormorant and smU.

As we descended thp brown and barren stone-
strewn hill towards a little Sahara of sand, a hare
limped away before us, and the hot bare rocks were
enlivened by the cocj[uettish movements of the
pretty hoopoe; but beyond these and grasshoppers
there Avere no signs of life. AYe passed through a
small, close, unsavoury village, and arrived at a
vast level, sandy plain, quite hard and dry in some
parts, but showing generally the characters of a
salt-Avater swamp, Avith glistening A\diite patches of
encrusting salt, shalloAv lagoons, and taAAuiy spaces
Avhere the cuiieAvs stalked about like so many
diminutive ostriches, and Avdiere, by common agi'ce-
ment, avocets, sandpipers, and godAvits assembled
for a diligent search for j>alatable Avoims. Across
this Aveary waste mules and donkeys Avere Avendiiig
their way in single file along the narroAV paths, and
here and there a dark blue dot pointed out some

DEAD SUKF-DUCKS.

109

patient Climaman digging land-crabs for his supper.
As we were going off to the ship, the poor fisher-
men, in great dog-skin boots, came in through the
surf, in rude, log-built catamarans. Weary and
dripping, they flung down on the sand great heaps
of turbot and plaice, soles and skate. They had
also brought with them dead surf-ducks in astonish-
ing numbers. These, they said, were drowned in
the gale and got foul of their nets. These ducks
are not uncommon all along the Shan-tung coast.
They are ungainly, surf-loving birds, seeking safety
from the sportsman chiefly in diving, and are ver)'
difficult to hit. On the flash of the gam they dive
under the water, hardly ever waiting for the report.
They fly in a straight line just above the surface,
in a heavy and awkward manner. As articles of
food they are abominable, their flesh being hard,
dark, dry, and fishy.

110

CHAPTER IX.

Tlie Great Wall— Quaint-looking Watch house — Inquisitive Sons of Ham
— Visit to the Temples — Birds Shot by our Sportsmen — Hawking
at the Great Wall — Flowers and Insects — Wreck of the Medusa —
Scarcity of Land Shells— Humming-bird Hawk-moth — The Shield
Slirimp — Staunton Island.

As we approached the slightly jirojectiug. angle of
.the coast of Pechcli, where the Great Wall ends in
the waters of the Gulf of Liau-tung, we peroeived a
naiTOw tawny line of sand and some green clusters
of dark trees, with the gable ends of joss-houses
showing through the foliage, and for a background
a slate-coloured mountain range. The Great Wall,
with its square towers and crenellated parapet,
climbs the distant hills, and winds along the level
plain at their base. Landing at some rocks, we
passed through a gap in the ruined pier of the Sea-
Gate, mounted a flight of broad granite steps, and got
upon the top of the wall. Here we saw a quaint-

VISIT TO TEMPLES.

Ill

looking watcli-lioiise, witli -peaked roof and
twisted gables. In and about this building were
some fat and lean mandarins, very self-important
in appearance, with a few Tartar soldiers, horses
and all, and a very inquisitive mass of shaven-
pated, narrow-eyed, long-tailed sons of Ham. The
observed of all observers,” we passed through the
intensely-staring throng, who pressed upon us until
our walk upon the Great Wall of China was an
accomplished fact.

When we again descended to the sandy plain, we
visited the temples seen nestling so prettily in the
sacred groves of dark-leaved trees. Here we found
oiu’selves among fantastic gable ends and carvings,
gilded dragons, and great bells hung in old-fashioned
belfries. In the couH-yard of the temple of the
biggest Joss was an antique bronze urn, and on
either side a colossal tortoise bearing on its back an
upright monolith covered with inscriptions. These
old stone tortoises are possibly coeval with the
Great Wall, and fashioned some 2080 years ago.
The surrounding country has, for this part of

112

ASPECT OP THE COUNTRY.

China, ’rather a flourishing aspect, although the
buildings within the Sea-Gate are in ruins, and
the famous “ Myriad-mile Wall,” as the Chinese,
in the pride of their hearts, love to call it, is in a
very dilapidated condition, and in some parts is
even banked up, being nearly covered with sand.

Sheaves of newly-cut millet (the common food-
plant of North China) were jailed up in every field'
— for it was harvest time at the Great Wall ; and
scattered over the plain were little straggling home-
steads, for the most part snugly embosomed among
trees, the flat roofs of the low mud-built houses
just visible here and there through the green
foliage. A few Chinamen were quietly at work
among the millet, and groups of donkeys were
reposing in the broad shadow of the Great Wall,
which is seen extending in a long line until it seems
to vanish in the far distance. Here we halted, while
friend Bcdwell sketched the scene, and I smoked a
pipe and contemplated the novel and interesting
landscape from behind the cloud. While -we were
thus engaged, an old grey-bearded man silently

BIRDS SHOT BY OUR SPORTSMEN.

113

joined us, and solemnly lighted Ms pipe by means
of a burning glass (a large pebble lens without a
flaw or scratch,) which he mysteriously produced
,from the folds of his garments.

As we have everywhere observed along the shores
of this Gulf, a belt of sandy soil fringes the sea-
board, where burdock and the yellow toadflax, a
small blue-flowered iris, the wild onion, and the
crane's-bill are the only plants, and lizards and
grasshoppers the only animals. In some parts the
ground is swampy, and there are several shallow
snipe-haunted freshwater pools. Here some teal
and the Garganey duck were shot by our sportsmen,
besides some curlews and a few golden j)lovers.
Two species of heron, the gray and the white, are
common ; and in this locality the godwit, the snipe,
and the sanderling find themselves at home. In
the act of demolishing a frog the great bittern w^as
wounded, and rather astonished the dog “Dash,”
as, with sharp open beak and bristling loose neck-
feathers, he fiercely stood at bay. Overhead the
wild geese and ducks were flying south in im-

114

HAWKIXG AT THE GEEAT WALL.

mense flocks before tbe cold northerly gales. The
ubiquitous magpie was, of course, observed perched
on the village trees, and the serious rook had work
of his own among the grubs in the newly ploughed,
fields. A golden-crested Avren was hopping daintily
among the Ioav bushes; the Avagtail Avas jerking
about the dry mudflats; the skylark, rising heaven-
Avard Avith bis song of praise, Avas lost among the
clouds ; and the quail Avas to be seen everyAvhere.

Among the croAvd of Cliinamen at the Great
Wall, men are frequently seen Avith beautiful tame
haAvks on their Avrists. These are goshaAvks, Avhich
they fly at cjuail Falcomy having come originally
from the far East, the practice is doubtless more
ancient than the Great Wall itself. , In liaAA^king
for cjuail a man is required to carry a net for the
captured birds, and also to beat tbe cover. When
a quail rises tbe master of tbe baAvk directs ber
attention to tbe eparry. Tbe gosbaAvk darts for-
Avard and seizes tbe quail in ber talons. Tbe man
Avith tbe net then runs uj) to her, ‘and takes aAvay
the quail, Avliich is deposited Avith the other

SANDY DOWN.

1]5

captured birds in bis net. In this manner as
many as twenty brace of quail may be taken in
a day. The goshawk has a long sillvcn cord round
her neck, which is wound on a reel secured to the
arm of her owner.

* -;^ * * *

Fleecy white clouds were saihng softly across the
pale blue sky, and a single skylark was singing
clear and loud overhead. From the bay on the
south side of Cape Vansittart, I passed to the bay
on the north side. I reached a sandy down, where
many flowers reminded me of home and “merrie
England.” Among others I observed the storksbiU
and the toadflax, but not the “ wee modest crimson-
tipped flower” we all love so well. In its place,
however, was the Chinese pink, which grew in
abundance everywhere. A pretty campanula was
also very common, and springing up in dry stony
places were the spikes of a white-flowered stone-
crop, looking just like a pigmy aloe in a miniature
desert. Grasshoppers leaped up around me in
prodigious numbers, and among the stunted shrubs

116

FLOWERS AND INSECTS.

slowly stalked the grass-green mantis. The huni-
ming-hird hawk-moth hovered around the spikes
of the sedum, and flitting about were painted lady
and clouded yellow butterflies.

As we were strolling on, we came to the edge of
an abrupt, broken, yellow-fronted clifl*, whence
issued the harsh, grating song of the tree-cricket,
and where, flying backwards and forwards, were
many blue rock-pigeons. We descended the cbiF,
and before us perceived a blue bay with blue hills
in the distance. Around us were brown, flat-topped
and angular rocks, bristling with black patches of
juvenile mussels, and rough with white patches of
juvenile barnacles. The ubiquitous Lampanise, a
kind of sea-screw, were crawling in the little j^ools,
in which also the lively, big-headed gobies and the
sly, artful blenny were disporting themselves. Here
also, Ave obserA^cd running about, in a busy, cheerful,
bustling manner, the beautiful golden j)lover, the
red-billed oystercatcher, the greenshank, and the
sandcrling.

When AA^e got doAAUi to the “ lean-ribbed ” sand, a

WRECK OF THE MEDUSA.

117

tawny waste was perceived extending right and
left for miles ; and spotted teal were feeding at the
margin of the water. But what is that mysterious
object rolling and tumbling in the ripple of the
tide ? We observe its motions for a short time
with a curious eye, but on approaching perceive
that it is an immense Ehizostoma, stranded and
helpless, at the mercy of the waves. It was
• certainly the Biggest jelly-fish I had ever seen,
measuring three feet across the disk. The unfor-
tunate Medusa had not only the misfortune to be
wrecked, but had to suffer the still more dire
calamity of being eaten, Chinamen came down,
like Eiff pirates, or Cornish weekers, to the scene
of the disaster, and cut off huge slices of the firm
translucent blubber, and carefully wrapping them
in cloths carried them away for gastronomic use.
Doubtless their insipid mess of boiled rice was
greatly improved thereby at evening chow-chow.”
This is the only instance I have known of any of
the Acalephse being used as food.

On all the elevated breezy downs — and they are

118

SEDUMS.

very numerous along the sea-board of Shan-tung
and Liau-tung, and more especially on their exposed
and rounded summits, where the soil is scant and
stony — hardly anything flourishes but thistles and
snails ! But none of these snails are half so
attractive as tlie humming-bird hawk-moths, with
which these localities are always associated in my
mind. The Sedums are in full flower, and cover
the surface of the earth with little golden pyramids,
magazines of nectar, aroimd which hover the macro-
glossae, the only sentient things, save the snails, one
claims acquaintance Avith on these barren heights,
unless, indeed, you cross the highest ridge at the
highest point, and look down upon the jagged
fractured rocks of black basalt, when you may see
the gulls and oystercatchers, and hear their melan-
choly wail and the hai’sh cry of the fishing cor-
morant, mingling with the roar of the great
toppling Avaves as they come thundering in upon
the boulders at the base. But in the quiet sunny
spots Avhere the Sedums bloom, round and round
hover the pretty moths, vibrating their Avings and

VEGETATION.

119

probing with their spiral tongues the yellov'-
pyramids of stars which gladden the dull earth.

The scarcity of land-shells may possibly be owing
to the barren granitic nature of the hills, and also
to the high state of cultivation of the plains and
valleys. On the hills we breathe very pure air,
and gaze on picturesque rugged rocks, but see few
dowers and no blooming heather ; nor does the red
sandy loam below reveal the outline of faiiy tarn
or lakelet. Snails are said to have great partiality
for limestone, but here all is granite. The vegeta-
tion, moreover, is never varied or luxuriant enough
to supply the wants of any great herbivorous snails
whose pahulum vitce is leaves. On upland slopes
the pale yellow stars of Chrysanthemum chinense
may attract the eye, and sometimes a modest violet
peeps out from beneath the shelter of a clod, or a
dull purple crowfoot is seen, or a little deep blue
gentian emerges from the sandy loam. The rest
of the vegetation is made up of burdock, Avorm-
wood, toadflax, and hawkweed, and the sandy
parts are covered with a hard spiky grass.

120 WATCH-TOWER AND TARTAR HORSEMEX.

On the 12t]i of September we landed on a j)ro-
jecting point, marked on the charts as an island, on
the eastern side of the Gulf of Liau-tung, about
forty miles north of Hulu-Shan Bay. On lea\dng
the boat near the rocky Cape Vansittart, which is
separated from the mainland by a flat sandy neek,
we apj)roached a rounded knoll, on the summit of
which was a square watch-tower with Tartar horse-
men grouped picturesquely around it ; a scene my
artist friend Bedwell was desirous of sketching,

O

In the distance were the angular cold gray peaks
and ridges of a barren mountain range, with here
and there little rivers running down their sides,
gleaming like quicksilver as the sun shone on the
water-courses and little winding sti-eams. At the
base of these lifeless granite masses stretched a
level j)lain, green and fertile, where little straggling
hamlets of low flat-topped mud houses were snugly
sheltered in long groves of trees. To this succeeded
a sterile sandy belt, with a chain of freshwater
ponds, shallow and full of weeds, and with muddy
open spaces between them — the natural resort of

SALT-WATER LAGOONS.

121

tlie curlew, the whimbrel, the plover* and the snipe.
Here, also, we saw the spotted crake, a very sly
little fellow, keeping close in the cover of the reeds
and grass. The pretty but scentless Chinese pink
a little blue-flowered iris, and a yellow, red and
white mixture of the blossoms of the tormentil, the
heads of sanguisorba, and the loose corymbs of the
flower of yarrow, completed nearly all the j)lants
that redeemed the sandy soil from sameness and
utter sterility. N earer the sea long salt-water lagoons
and shallow swamps extended, covered in some parts
with a white-flowered sea-lavender and the blue
stars of Aster Tripolium. From these the great
white heron slowly rose, with bright yellow bill
pointing out in front, and long black legs stretched
out behind, and after a few lazy flaps with his
huge curved wings, alighted again to resume his
interrupted fishing. Equally familiar was his yet
larger cousin in gray, - the common heron, and,
standing on one leg, her loose snovy plumes
waving in the breeze, the elegant white egret
dreamed of frogs and fishes. Sandpipers and green-

122

SHIELD-SHRIMP.

shanks ran piping and probing about the margin,
and gulls and little terns screamed, cparrelled, and
hovered over the heads both of bipeds and birds.

As I stooped to collect some specimens of pond-
snails in one of the clear freshwater ponds with a
bottom of sandy mud, my attention was arrested by
an object which at first sight I regarded as an
unknown genus of bivalve mollusca, but on placing
it in a bottle of water the real nature of the crea-
ture became revealed. It was an Entomostracon.
As a whale among minnoAvs, so, said I, is my new
genus among AvateiHeas ; but again I was mistaken.
I had not fished long before I brought to light a
veritable apus, or shield-shrimp, and I saAv at once
that my supposed new genus was the young of
this ci^eature, thus illustrating very prettily the law
in the development of organised beings, that the
transition state of a higher form will represent the
permanent condition of genera lower in the scale of
being. I cannot find - any account nf the metamor-
phoses of the Apodidee, or whether it is known that
in the young state the shield is folded on itself

STAUNTON ISLAND.

123

longitudinally in the form of a bivalve shell -which
entii’cly conceals the head, body, and feet of the
animal. There is but a single large black eye in
these young ones, situated Polyphemus-like in the
middle of the forehead. The very young larvse are
of a pale horn colour, and swim in a steady manner
forwards, the ventral edge of the shell being directed
downwards. As they move through the water they
partially expand and close the valves of the shell.
Older and larger individuals are olivaceous, and are
fond of lying on their sides in the sand at the edge
of the pond, now and then spinning round and
round by means of their protruded tail. The adult
of Kroyer’a shield-shrimp, as it may be called, keeps
in deep water, and is voracious and predatory, not
confining his attention to small things in the water,
but even feeding on drowned dragon-flies.

*****

The little island called Staunton Island, near the
Shan-tung promontory, is very high and rocky, with
an irregular green summit. Iron-bound and inac-
cessible, one little cove alone serves as a landing

124

FISHEEMENS HUTS.

place, above which, clustering together in every
accessible ledge, are fisherinen’s huts, looking, when
seen from a distance, like a group of martins’
nests. On landing, we mounted from one stony
terrace to another by rude steps cut in the rock,
and saw around us and above us nothing but fish
— fish in various forms, but chiefly split open, and
drying on the great bare rocks.

The blue pigeon has possession of the wall-faced
cliffs, and feeds unmolested in the hollows of their
grassy tops. Here also a pretty blue thrush flies
from one lichen-spotted boulder to another ; and
now and then the great brown lizard, a species of
skink, emerges from his hiding place in the crevice
of some rock.

125

CHAPTER X.

The Korea — Among the Islands — Odd Names of Moimtain Peaks — Vic-
toria Harbour — Beacon Fires— Visit from the Natives — Their Pic-
turesque Appearance — Description of the Chief — Costume of the
Natives — "Worship of Bacchus — Their Eude Manners —Their
Curiosity — Modes of Salutation — An Anecdote.

Leaving the huge cone-like island of Quelpart in
the distance, the freshening breeze bears us gallantly
along towards those unknown islands which form the
Archipelago of Korea. As you approach them you
look from the deck of the vessel and you see them
dotting the wide blue boundless plain of the sea —
groups and clusters of islands stretching away into
the far distance. Far as the eye can reach, although
that is not many nailes, their dark masses can be
faintly discerned, and, as we close, one after another
the bold outlines of their mountain peaks stand out
clearly against the cloudless sky. The water, from
which they seem to arise, is so deep around them

1^6

AMONG THE ISLANDS.

tliat a ship can almost range np alongside them.
The rough grey granite and bare basaltic cliffs of
which' they are composed, show them to be only the
rugged peaks of submerged mountain-masses, which
have been rent in some great convulsion of nature
from the peninsula which stretches into the sea
from the mainland. You gaze upward and see the
weird fantastic outline which some of their torn and
riven peaks present. In fact, they have assumed
such peculiar forms as to have suggested to navi-
gators characteristic names. Here, for example,
stands out the fretted, crumbling towers of one
called ‘‘ Windsor Castle ; there froAvns a noble
rock-ruin, the “ Monastery ; ” and here again,
mounting to the skies, is “ Abbey Peak.’'

I was reading the other day some travels, by an
old author, in Mongolia, and was struck by the
suggestive names which the Tartars have seized
upon to designate the remarkable features of some of
their mountain peaks ; where, instead of “ AVindsor
Castle” we have the Five-ugly-Devils,” and instead
of “ Abbey Peak ” the ‘‘ Five-horses’-heads.”

VICTORIA HARBOUR. 127

‘ Some of the islands of this Archipelago are very
lofty, and one was ascertained to Ijoast of a naked
granite peak more than two thousand feet above the
level of the sea. Many of the summits are crowned
with a dense forest of conifers, dark trees very
similar in appearance to Scotcli^rs.

After several days spent among these islands, we
sailed one evening, very tranquilly, into the wide
deep bay which has received the name in English
charts of \^ictoria Harbour, but which is known to
the natives as Tsau-lian, situated on the mainland
of Korea, and which forms the southern boundary
of Manchuria. Captain Broughton, who first dis-
covered it, gave it the name of Tcho-San, most
probably from hearing the natives call all the sur-
rounding country 0-tchu-San. As we came to an
anchor, in the dusk of the evening, beacon fires
burst forth on all the neighbouring hills, a sure sign
of the watchfulness, if not alarm, of tlie jealous
people we were come to visit.

Betimes on the. next day, large, heav}", flat-
bottomed boats came off from the nearest land,

128

VISIT OF A CHIEF.

pulling slowly, but steadily, towards the ship, and
filled with the rabble of a chief, who occupied the
largest boat. A flourish of tninipets, or rather
conches, announced his approach, and when he
stepped on board he was saluted with three guns.
The lioatmen were rough, bravuiy fellows, with
coarse Tartar features, bronzed by exjiosure to the
weather, with unkempt hair, shaggy beards, and
uncouth bearing. They could not be persuaded
by the most vociferous upbraidings, not even by
threats of the bastinado, to mind their boats,
but would throng on board with the chief and
his followers, and gaze upon the Devils of the
Western Sea,” — and soon a motley group formed
on the deck.

The chief, who really had something very noble
and majestic about him, as is generally the case
with men in high authority among the natives of
those islands, was duly presented, and seated him-
self upon a mat placed for him by one of his
attendants. The demeanour of those of his
countrpnen who surrounded him was as free and

OLD MAN OF IxMPOSING APPEARANCE. I2d

independent as his own was reserved and dignified.
With their strange costumes, easy movements, and
the animation of their manner excited by curiosity,
the entire group presented a very picturesque
appearance.

The aspect of the old man, with his grey flowing
beard, bushy eyebrows, solemn visage, aiid mild
observant eyes, was very imposing. In his hand
he held his badge of office, a wand of ebony with a
green silken cord entwined about it like the serpent
of iEsculapius. Two pages stood behind him with
his fan, tobacco pouch, and umbrella, his long-
stemmed pipe being in his ovm hand. He was
dressed in a loose violet-coloured robe, with the
cuffs of the sleeves turned up with scarlet, which
covered, and partly concealed, an inner crimson
tunic reaching 'below the knees., His loose, wide
pantaloons of green were tied in above his ankles,
and on his feet he wore white socks and black
leather boots, much pointed and turned up at the
to^s, resembling those worn by the courtiers in the
reign of Charles the Second. His venerable head

K

130

COSTUME OF THE PEOPLE.

was protected by the broad-brimmed, bigb-crowned
Hat of black-stained bamboo network, a bat peculiar,
I imagine, to tbe people of this remarkable country.

Grouped around tbis central figure were a few
soldiers, with tails of red borse-bair depending from
tbeir bats, and aimed with short swords. A few
other men about him bad rather an air of supe-
riority to tbe others. These were distinguished by
a single peacock’s feather attached to tbe apex
of the pointed crown of tbeir bats, and banging
down gracefully over tbe extensive brim. Peacocks
being unknown in tbe Korea, these feathers, as is
the case among tbe Chinese, are brought, no doubt,
as tribute from India, and have been bestowed upon
those by whom they are worn, as marks of distinc-
tion, by then' king. It is as a similar mark of
distinction that tbe Emperor of China presents a
peacock’s feather to such of bis higher functionaries
as be desires to reward with some emblem of bis
especial favour.

The costume of tbe poorer people is stiH tbe
same as I find it described in the most complete

SERFS OR COOLIES.

131

account of Korea to which I have had access,
namely, that of Hamel, who has given us the
Travels of some Dutchmen in Korea.” The only
references, however, in his work to the dress of
these singular people are very brief, though suffi-
ciently characteristic. “ These men,” he says, “ are
clad after the Chinese fashion, excepting only their
hats, which are of horsehair ; ” and again, “ The
poorer sort have no clothes but what are made of
hemp and pitiful skins.”

The serfs, or Coolies, as we may term them, don
a loose wide jacket of a coarse cotton material, tied
across the chest, in a somewhat slovenly manner,
by a string. This jacket, which reaches, as hir as
the waist, is furnished with short, wide sleeves.
The lower portions of their bodies are protected by
short, wide trowsers, reaching down to just above
the knee, their legs and feet being bare. Their hats,
when they have any, are large slouching sombreros,
made of brown felt Many men whom I saw
striding in from the villages, with long staves like
alpenstocks in their hands, were clothed in thick.

182

rWELCOME VISITOES.

padded coats, and had on their heads shaggy
conical caps of fur. These specimens of the rural
population, I also observed, were stalwart-looking
fellows, several of them being of more than usually
large proportions.

We did not encourage the visits of these people,
who, if not restrained, would have come on board
at all hours, and quite overrun the ship. They
were by no means welcome or agreeable visitors, for
the plain fact must be stated that they were some-
what unsavoury and not over clean. They were like
those Tartars mentioned in an old book of travels
by William de Eubruquis — “ They never wash any
cloaths — nay, they beat such as wash, and take
their garments from them ! ” IMoreover, they pilfer
when they can. A sort of grandee was regaling
himself in our ward-room with a cheery glass, when
the steward, ever watchful in his pantry, spied
one of his attendant pages adroitly pocketing a
spoon. Kleptomaniacs, thought I, in this country
should be more ’ careful, for I read in Hamel that
“ punishment for theft in the Korea is to be

133

WORSHIP OF BACCHUS.

trampled to death ! ” In this particular case, how-
ever, the culprit was threatened and soundly abused
by the bacchanalian grandee, his master, and turned
out of the ship by the captain.

As a nation, I am sadly afraid these people are
greatly addicted to the worship of Bacchus.
During my small excursions on shore I witnessed
many an old serf inebriated with samshoo ; and I
often saw groups, cpiite worthy of Cruikshank's
famous picture, crowding round mighty, jars of a
sort of fermented liquor like beer. These men
evidently loved the beverage as much as even
jovLal Jack Falstaff, and, like the boors in Ten-
nant's “ Anster Fair," they —

“ Grow by boosing boisterously merry.”

Moreover, they do not seem to have improved in
this respect since the time when Hamel was among
them in 1653. Being then presented with the
captain's cup (who was drowned when the ship
went ashore,) and with a pot of red wine saved
from the wreck, that traveller says, “ They liked

184

PtUDEXESS OF THE KOREANS.

the liquor so well that they draiLk till they were
very merry/’

One trait in their character, which is far from
recommending them to strangers visiting their
shores, is their extreme rudeness. On more than
one occasion, my gentle-mannered companion, a
little man with roundish eyes, and myself, whose
nose is not a snub, were surrounded by a rough but
not unfriendly mob, who treated us in a most un-
ceremonious manner. Our personal peculiarities
seemed to afford them much amusement, reminding
us of a passage in Hue’s China, when the tall man
Hue, and the short man Gabet, were, at Yao-
tchang, submitted to a similar scrutiny. One of
these inquisitive critics remarked, “ The little devil
has very large eyes, and the tall one a very pointed
nose.” In a similar way our hair and skin were
freely commented upon; the fineness of the one
and the smoothness of the other being greatly ad-
mired. Our persons and garments were subjected
to the most minute examination, conducted in a
manner at once familiar and rude. The fashion

OBTRUSIVE CURIOSITY.

135

and texture of our clothes were made the subject of
endless observations. Our gilt buttons were greatly
admired, and to all appearance ardently coveted.
Even the contents of our pockets were turned out,
passed from hand to hand, and freely criticised,
but, be it said to their credit, always honestly
restored to their legitimate owners.

When we were many years ago among the gentle
and inoffensive Loo Chooans, we were often sur-
rounded by a crowd of eager gazers, all gaping
upon us with looks of concentrated curiosity i but
among that peaceful race the Book of Kites is
respected, and the ‘‘ hundred families, as the
Chinese term the people, looked upon us at a
respectful distance : the children placed in the
front ranks, the next rank kneeling, and the tali
ones standing in the rear ; but we experienced no
treatment like that to which we were subjected here,
where we were made the butt of the rabble, who
never seemed to weary of the amusement which
they derived from the inspection of our peculiarities,
national and personal. AVliile we were surrounded

136

MODES OF SALUTATION.

by these uncouth gentry, we could not fail to be
reminded, moreover, of the contrast between their
rude manners and the graceful salutations of the
polished Japanese ; or between their vulgar and ob-
trusive curiosity, and the polite forms of the people
of the Floweiy Land. These Koreans seem to have
no idea of a generous and refined hospitality to
strangers. Towards us individually they did not
show a single mark of respect, and treated us with
but scant courtesy. Their treatment of us did not
proceed from ignorance, for they have a code of
etiquette which is strictly followed among them-
selves, the poorer classes prostrating themselves
before their superiors.

Most races of men have some peculiar mode of
salutation, some of them, to us, apjiarcntly highly
original. The Tartars scratch their ears and put
out their tongues ; a custom which ‘affords M. Hue
an • occasion for one of his delicate strokes of
humour. That adventurous missionary, finishing
the account of his interview with the chief of the
police at La-Ssa, in which he was accompanied by

ETIQUETTE OF SAVAGES.

137

]\I. Gabet, says, After politely putting out our
tongues we withdrew.” There are, however, modes
of salutation even more ludicrous than this. Some
savages, the name of whose tribe I forget, when
they wish to show theh respect, roll on their backs,
kick up theh legs, and slap repeatedly the outside
of their thighs. The chief of the Ahts, of Van-
couver's Island, when he wishes to pay his
neighbour a compliment, puts on a mask stuck
full of porcupine’s quills, upon which he heaps a
quantity of swans’ down, and dancing up to his
visitor gives a jerk with his head and sends the
down all over him. The Wanyamuezi, a tribe in
Africa, when they meet each other clap their hands
twice ; and if a Watusi man meets a woman of the
same tribe, she allows her arms to Ml by her side
while he gently presses her arms below the
shoulder. We all have heard, too, of the ceremony
of Ongi, or pressing noses, which is the Maori
etiquette in New Zealand.

CHAPTER XL

Exciting Incident— Korean Tombs— Mode of Burial — Dwellings in the
Korea — Japanese Outpost — An Entertainment — Hamel’s “ Travels”
— Language of the Koreans — A Commendable Custom — Religious
Belief — Priests and Kims.

Durikg our sojourn at Tsaulian an incident
occurred which might have been attended with
serious consequences. It was considered necessary,
for the benefit of future navigators, to fix more
correctly the position of this place. The captain,
protected by a guard of marines, landed in the
morning, and advanced a little way towards a
hillock in the immediate vicinity of the large walled
town. He was looking about for some favourable
spot on which to make his observations, when a
|)arty of the natives, who had been silently but
jealously watching our every movement, suddenly
advanced upon us, thinking, jicrhaps, we were about
to attack their town. One or two of them, armed

MEDITATIONS AMONG THE TOMBS.

139

with old matchlocks and others with sticks, ad-
vanced against us, while one, more daring than the
rest, closing with the sergeant, attempted to wrest
his rifle from him. The captain, however, came
briskly to the rescue, and dealt a well-directed blow
with his walking-stick upon the knuckles of the as-
sailant, who beat at once a hasty retreat, discomfited
and crestMlen. This well-timed action excited the
laughter of his would-be-bellicose compatriots, who
halted and remained gazing upon us from a safe
distance ; until, having completed our observations,
we packed up our instruments, and, greatly to the
relief of the natives, returned to the ship. Mr. Mac-
leod, in his “Voyage of the Alceste,” relates an
incident very similar, which occurred to the officers
of his ship in 1816 , and probably at the same place.

The spot from which we made our observation
was close upon the confines of their cemetery,
and strolling in that direction, I meditated among
their tombs. There was, however, not much • to
foster meditation among the monuments, which
for the most part consisted of tall square columns,

140

FUNERAL CUSTOMS.

surmounted by the square effigy of a human
head, with a square kind of cap on the top of it.
In other tombstones the human form was ren-
dered even less divine, consisting of a rudely
sculptured stone image, with a very flat nose, a
very wide mouth, and very little oblique eyes,
stuck upon a very long neck, stretched out as if the
ghost of the defunct were striving to emerge from
the long coarse grass of the burial ground. One
monument, however, was of considerably higher
pretension than the others, the broad headstone
being inscribed with the name and position of the
deceased in Chmese characters. The tomb was
covered with a large square granite slab, and in
front of the grave was what appeared to be the
model of a little temple or mausoleum.

Hamel, almost the only authority in matters
concerning the inner or domestic life of the
Koreans, says that “they enclose every corpse in
two coffins two or three fingers thick, put one
between the other to keep out the water, painting
and adorning them according to their ability. Three

DWELLINGS IN THE KOREA.

141

days after the funeral/’ he adds, “ the friends of the
dead man return to the grave, where they make
some offerings, and then eating all together, are
very merry.” This funereal feast would seem to
resemble an Irish wake, the only difference being
that it is a little deferred.

The dwelhngs of the humbler classes in the
Korea are grouped in hamlets, and their tall
conical roofs, beneath which are their granaries or
store-rooms, are usually thatched with reeds. Each
house is separated from its neighbour, and is in-
closed within a high stone wall, which entirely
conceals from those who might be curious enough
to observe them the domestic arrangements of the
inmates. Their villages, when viewed from a dis-
tance, present somewhat the appearance of the
dwellings of those white ants whose communities
near Senegal are so well described by Adanson.

In the cities and large walled towns, the roofs
of the houses are covered with tiles, and the floors
of the rooms are hollow underneath. In these
hollows fires are kindled to warm the inmates in

14a INTERIOR OF A COTTAGE.

winter. The richer inhabitants have gardens and
courtyards ornamented with fish-ponds, and planted
with dwarfed trees in the Japanese style.

In a quiet stroll I came across a stone-built
cabin, a sort of isolated cottage j)laced in a little
garden. Not a soul was visible, so I entered cau-
tiously and peered about. It was a long narrow
house, with two pointed gable-ends, and a sloping
roof, which' projected into wide eaves, forming a
balcony, supported by stout wooden posts, under
the shade of which a long raised bench or platform
extended the whole length of the building. On this
platform I pictured . the entire finnily sitting cross-
legged on a long summer s day, smoking, chatting,
and laughing at some good joke. The windows
were square, and instead of glass were covered with
oiled paper; they were furnished, moreover, with
moveable wooden shutters. I entered the cooking
room, and found it a very dirty, dingy, low,
unsavoury kitchen, with a bench at the further
end, elevated a little above the floor, whereon stood
the cooking utensils belonging to the household, a

FOOD OF THE NATIVES.

143

huge earthen water jar, and sundry wooden bowls !
The superintendent of the cauldron/^ as they term
the cook in China, cannot, I think, be required to
exercise much culinary talent in devising the list
of dishes for the table. In this poor household, I
ventured to predict they were summed up in one
simple word — Porridge !

The food of the Koreans generally is of no great
variety, and their dishes are very simple in their
composition. The more wealthy and substantial
among them have condiments with their boiled rice,
and with their chopsticks help themselves to tit-bits
of savoury pork and boiled fowl; but the poorer
classes arc obliged to content themselves with less
generous hire, barley -meal and the coarse flour
prepared by pounding millet being the jnancipal
means of sustaining life. Kice will grow only in
the southern portion of the peninsula.

At one period of their history the Koreans
occupied a considerable portion of Eastern Tartary,
from which, however, they were driven out, and
obliged to take refuge in the peninsula which now

144

HTSTOEY OF THE KOREA.

bears tlieir name. Old Hamel mentions, that when
he was at Sior (which, he says, is the name of the
capital), a Tartar envoy arrived demanding the
usual tribute, on which occasion he and his ship-
wrecked companions were sent away to a great fort
till the ambassador had dej)arted, the king fearing

that theii* detention in the hands of the Koreans

• * •

would come to the ears of the great Khan.

They have also been conquered by the Japanese.
In the heroic times of the Mikados, the Em2)ress
Yengon sent an expedition for the subjugation of
the Korea, which was completely successful. The
country was again invaded by the Mongols, when
the Siogoun Yoritomo defeated Kublai Khan. The
victors in these exj)editions carried off much valu-

4

able booty, which is exhibited at certain seasons of
the year.

On our arrival at Victoria Harbom*, we saw the
national flag of Japan waving from the flagstaff
of an ornamental red-tiled house, most pleasantly
situated in a grove of trees. This we found, on
inquiry, was an outpost of Japan, and occuj)ied by

JAPANESE OUTPOST.

145

a mandarin of some rank, and a guard of soldiers.
When Hamel was a prisoner among the Koreans, in
1653, he says, alluding to their then crippled state,
‘'Kow both Tartars and Chinese tyrannise over
them."

I accompanied the captain in his galley, to call
upon the Japanese officer, but on entering a small
camber near their settlement, we were met by
numbers of sharp-prowed boats, which attempted to
bar our further progress ; upon which, the crew
were told to arm themselves with the boats
stretchers, and bring those who were opposing our
progress to order. Our men, accordingly, obedient
to command, dealt about them pretty lustily, and
the Japanese soon giving way, we effected a landing.
We had not yet, however, gained our object, for, on
arriving at the entrance of their stronghold, we
were decidedly shut out, and on demanding admit-
tance it was peremptorily denied. So we proceeded
on board again, and despatched the interpreter to
demand an explanation, with the threat of the
alternative of a bombarchnent early next morning !

146

ENTERTAINMENT.

This decided treatment seemed to bring them at
once to their senses, for ‘the interpreter brought
back from the Japanese authorities an invitation to
the officers to come on shore and dine with them.

We, of course, accepted the invitation, and at the
appointed time made our appearance in epaulettes
and side-arms. We were conducted to a handsome
lofty hall of audience, where the Great ]\Ian sat
in state, with a page holding a drawn sword on
either side of him. On the same elevated dais sat
two other officials of lower rank. They begged us
to be seated, and when we had complied with their
request, some young men appeared Avith little tables
and cups of saki, which they placed before us. We
all soon became very sociable together, and were on
the best terms with our entertainers. The Esha, or
doctor of the establishment, Avas particularly atten-
tive to me. He insisted on presenting me with the
medicine box which he usually carried about him,
and AAdiich, on examination, I saAv contained some
of those Avonderful musk-scented red pills Avhich
the Chinese style ^^supernatural treasure for all

INEBRIATED DOCTOR.

147

desires,” and whicli are supposed to be a true
universal panacea for all diseases. The composition
of these celebrated pills, like that so highly lauded
by the admirers of Old Parr, is a secret in the pos-
session of a single family, and has been faithfully
transmitted from generation to generation. I regret
to have to observe that my learned brother, towards
the latter end of the banquet, got so inebriated
that he was reprimanded, and ordered out of the
room by the dignified chief. He was a good-looking
fellow, closely shaven like a Bonze.

We partook of the sweets and cakes, and other
dainties provided for us ; but were I to enumerate
all the good things with which the tables groaned,
I might lay myself open to the imputation of
plagiarism — as did the officers of a European
Embassy who favoured their readers with a descrip-
tion of a repast which had been given them by the
mandarins. This description, however, they had
merely copied from the narrative of some Jesuit
missionaries who had ‘'wiitten an account more
than a hundred years back of a similar entertain-

US

Hamel’s travels.

ment, the dinner being composed of the very same
dishes, and served in precisely the same manner.”
We smoked a good deal, and quaifed many little
cups of warm scented pink saki ; eventually taking
our leave, much pleased with the hospitality shown
us. The whole affair reminded us of a similar
entertainment very elaborately described by Kemp-
fer, even to the circumstance of the inebriate
doctor : — Good liquor was drunk about plentifully
all the while, and the Commissioner’s surgeon, who
was to treat us, did not miss to take his full dose.”
The Editor of Hamers Travels seems to throw
some doubt upon the authenticity of his account,
though on very insufficient grounds. The names of
the towns through which the shipwrecked Dutch-
men passed on their way from the coast to the
capital, do not, it appears, correspond with those in
a map of the Korea, which they copied from one
hung up in the king’s palace. The difference,
however, may be easily accounted for; the names
in the map being doubtless written in Chinese cha-
racters, which are entirely different from those

KOREAN WRITING.

149

employed by the Koreans, a circumstance which
might easily lead to some discrepancy.

Hamel himself, in reference to the writing of this
people, observes, “They (the Koreans) use three
sorts of writing, the first like that of China and
Japan, which they use for printing their books, and
all public afliiirs; the second like the common
writing among Europeans — the great men and
governors use it to answer petitions, and make notes
on letters of advice, or the like — the commonalty
cannot read this writing; the third is more un-
polished, and serves women and the common sort. '

The Dutchman resided thirteen years in Korea,
some of which time was passed in the capital.
Two hundred years ago his ship was wrecked on
the Island of Quelpart, having been overtaken by a
violent tempest, which “ shook their boltsprit, and
endangered their prow." They were then over-
whelmed by a great wave, which caused the master
to cry out “ to cut down the mast by the board,
and go to their prayers.” His account of the
appearance, manners, and customs of the Koreans

150

COMMENDABLE CUSTOM.

faithfully represents them as they exist at the
present day. Theii' rough appearance and manners
have remained unaltered since 16.53, for the poor
shipwrecked Dut(dimen at first were afraid of
them : — “ Their very habit increased our fear, for
it had somewhat friglitful, which is not seen in
China and Japan.” On a longer acquaintance,
however, they found them kinder than was war-
ranted l)y their looks. *'We may affirm,” says
Hamel, “we were better treated by that idolater
(the king) tlian we should have been among Chris-
tians.” Their hatred of foreimi interference, and
their inhospitable attempts to oppose the landing
of strangers, or to hold any communication with
them, also remain unaltered since his time. He
relates that, in order to incite in their women and
children a wholesome dread of his poor countrpnen,
they spread a report that they “were of a mon-
strous race, and when they drank were obliged to
tuck up their noses behind their cars.”

One custom which prevails among them is
worthy of imitation even by the most advanced of

LATITUDINARIANISM.

151

Christian nations, and that is the care which the
sons take of the old people.' “ When a father,” says
Hamel, “is fourscore years of age, he declares
himself incapable of managing his estate, and re-
signs it up to his children. Then the eldest, taking
possession, builds a house at the common expense
for his father and mother, where he lodges and
maintains them with the greatest respect. How
often is this sacred duty imperfectly fulfilled, or
even entirely neglected, among ourselves !

The Koreans, in the time of Hamel, seem to have
indulged in some latitudinarlanism with regard to
religious faith and practice, for we read that “ the
common people make odd grimaces before the idols,
but pay them little respect; and the great ones
honour them much less, because they think them-
selves to be more than an idol.” The doctrine of
Cahin evidently does not find favour among them ;
their opinion being that good .doers shall be re-
warded, and evil doers be punished. Their priests
appear to be followers of Buddha. ‘‘They shave
their heads and beards, must eat nothing that had

]52

NUNNERIES.

life, and are forbidden conversing with women.'"
As among some other communities besides Korean,
some of the priests ‘‘go a-begging,” but the greater
number, a circumstance which is rare among any
other communities, “ work for their living, or follow
some trade.” They are haunted by some vague
traditionary idea of the Tower of Babel, believing,
says our old Dutchman, that “mankind originally
only had one language, but that the design of
building a tower to go up to heaven caused the
confusion of tongues.” They have numerous con-
vents or nunneries, where live societies of religious
women, who are “all shorn, abstain from flesh,
serve idols, and may not marry.” Kempfer, in his
History of Japan, also mentions “a certain remark-
able religious order of young girls called Birkuni,
or nuns, which damsels,” he informs us, obtain their
living by begging, and are, in his opinion, “the
handsomest girls we saw in Ja|)an.”

153

CHAPTER XII.

Port of Mali-lu-san — A Seining Party — Beautiful Scene — Hauling tlio
Seine — A Viviparous Fish — Encounter with a Snake A Clever
Thief— Deer Island— Buck Shooting— Lichens and Toads— The
Sunny Gorge — Wilford’s Rest — Range of the Tiger.

, One afternoon, anclior in the safe

and pretty port of Mali-lu-san, one of the Korean
group, there was a seining party, which I acconi-
panied. The day Avas lovely; the Avhole face ot
the country Avas bright and smiling ; the barley
Avas ripe in the fields, the hills Avere covered Avith
a varied green, and the little rippling Av^aA’^es ot
the clear Avater of the bay Avere dancing in tlie
sun. * Stretching far aAA^ay to the north and to
the south AA^ere groups ot dark-blue islets, rising
mistily from the surface of the sea — -glimpses of
that mysterious archipelago among the unknoAvn
islands of Avhich I cruised in by-gone years. The
sea was covered with large picturesque boats,

154

HAULIKG THE SEINE.

wliicli, crowded with Koreans in their white flut-
tering robes, were putting off from the adjacent
villages, and sculling across the pellucid water to
visit the stranger ship.

AVe chose a sheltered bay, and commenced
paying out the seine. Koreans, seated in groups,
bare-headed, or wearing their broad-brimmed hats,
were smoking their pipes in silence, as they in-
quisitively observed our jiroceedings. The rooks
in the tall and glorious trees that fringed the bay
cawed loudly with indignant remonstrance at the
unwonted intrusion upon their quiet haunts ; while
the sailors, to the tune of their popular songs,
hauled in the great net, in which upwards of
one hundred and seventy pounds of bream and
other fish were taken.

I, of course, took the opportunity while* here
of pursuing, with my usual zeal, my natural-
history inquiries. Among the denizens of the
sea I noticed toad-fishes, devil-fishes, sea-hoi’ses,
and swimming -crabs. I also noticed a great

many individuals of a singular viviparous fish.

PECULIAR PHENOMENON.

155

most of which had three or four living young
ones in their bellies. I believe the fish belongs
to a genus described by Temminck under the
name of Ditrema. I also found, as I strolled
away from the seining party, a singular species
of Arum, with long curling horns extending from
its lurid spathes. The natives were just as friendly
as when I visited the group in 1845. An old
man with a basket of sea- weed on his back stopped
me, and would fain persuade me to taste of
his Laminarian dainty. A little further on, a
young lad made a friendly advance by biting off a
portion of lily root and offering me the remainder ;
while a small boy* brought me wild raspberries
strung upon a straw.

On one occasion, while out with my friend
Buckley in search of adventures, we observed a
sandy mud-flat in the distance, on the other side
of which was a breakwater formed of heaped-up
boulders. On approaching nearer, we were struck
with a peculiar blue appearance of the sand-
flat ; which, strange to say, on our arrival sud-

156

ENCOUNTER WITH A SNAKE.

clenly disappeared^ but not before the cause of
the peculiar phenomenon revealed itself in the
form of thousands of struggling, round- bodied,
blue crabs, which were frantically endeavouring
to hide themselves in the yielding sand, for such
is the remarkable habit of Scopimera globosa.
The wave-worn stones of tlie breakwater were
23artly concealed by tangled vines, and the creep-
ing stems of Convohmlus niaritima. On this occa-
sion Ave had to do battle with a snake. AVhile
Buckley was proceeding in advance, I observed
that he siuldenly became excited, stopped, and
beckoned, pointing emphatically right before him.
Sure that something must be Avrong, I liurriedly
rushed to his assistance, just in time to cut off
the retreat of a large mottled snake as he Avas
trying to escape among the tangled vines and
boulders. A slight bloAV on the back arrested his
progress, paralysing the after-part of the body. He
turned fiercely round, hissing, and protruding his
lonof, black, fork-like tonj^ue. We both belaboured
the unfortunate reptile, and soon finished him. An

BOY GATHERING BARNACLES.

357

eXtiHiiricition of liis moutli sliowecl him to be r sntike
of a highly venomous character, the poison-fangs
being truly formidable.

The day was oppressive, and we soon began to
suffer from the heat, but the sight of a lonely hut
not far off suggested the promise of water to assuage
our thirst. On approaching the house to prefer our
modest request, we were startled at the apparition
of an old woman, fierce and angry, brandishing a
big stick. As she advanced rapidly upon us, she^
seemed in such a fury that to avoid the outburst
of her rage we ignominiously turned and fled, amid
a volley of what was indubitably Korean Billings-

G;ate.

O

When at a safe distance, we sat pensively on
?the lonely rocks, and, to soothe our rufiled spirits,
smoked a pipe, at the same time watching the
movements of a boy gathering barnacles. With
a sharp stone he deftly detached them from the
surface of the rock, picked out the fish, deposited
them in a large oyster-shell, and then, leaving his
gathered store, wandered on in search of more.

158

DEER ISLAND.

Having nothing better to do, we speculated as to
who he was. Was he the old crone’s grandson ?
AYere the barnacles for bait, or were they for
supj)er ? AYe soon remarked that we were not the
only clever ones who watched the lioy. A solitary
rook followed his motions with a knowing eye, and
when he saAv him at a safe distance, pounced softly
on the temj^ting morsels, gobbled them up greedily,
and, with a mocking caw of exulting defiance,
winged his way to the distant trees.

Forming one side of Chusan Harbour in the
Korea is a green hilly island, called “ Deer Island,”
covered with low trees, chiefly dwarf scrub, and
full of loose, moss-grown, lichen-covered stones.
In some parts the sides of the hills arc furrowed
by water-courses, where the wild pig feeds on the
fallen acorns, and where the little hog-deer comes
to drink. In otlier parts, the broad base of the
hill expands into grassy plains, where troops of
horses graze, and where we found scattered ponds,
rush-bordered, the favourite resort of shy, sober-
plumaged widgeons and little rounded, bright-eyed

ON THE ALERT FOR SPECIMENS.

159

teal. In one of the deep-sliadod, thickly-wooded
ravines of this charming island, I captured one of
my famous beetles, named by Pascoe in my lionour,
Dicranocephalus Adamsi !

I was ashore, as was my custom, with the “ merrio
men ” of the watering party, and, as was also my
wont, on the alert for specimens. Net in hand, I
wandered over the glorious hill-side, beating now,
and then the dense cover of oak-scrub for leaf-roll-
ing snout-beetles and the long-nosed acorn-beetles,
or bagging pretty long-horns, as they came flying
steadily by. Occasionally I captured glittering gold-
beaters and pretty lily-beetles, as they alighted on
the sunny leaves in the fern, among the green young
oaks. As I wandered on I kept a sharp look out,
or, as they say in nautical phrase, I “ kept my
weather-eye lifting.” Friend B., who started with
me, having a penchant for larger game, and looking
down somewhat disdainfully on beetles and such
“ small deer,” had diverged, and, gun in hand, was
on the trail of a buck. On a sudden I was made
aware that something of an unwonted nature had

160

DICRAXOCEPHALUS.

succeeded in astonishing the mind of my predatory
companion, for I heard his voice making the gully
resound with the cry, “Doctor, doctor!” Hastening
as fast as untractable boughs and the prickly vines
of Smilax \vould allow me, to the scene of his
excitement, I was agreeably surprised on beholding
a strange, great, and beautiful ColeoiDteran, feebly
struggling in a green bed of oak-leaves, and my
friend of the fowling-piece gazing with surprise, not
unmixcd with alarm, at its unwonted aspect. I
knew him for a Goliath, and raised him carefully
from his verdurous couch. He had been fl}nng in
the sun round a cluster of hr-trees, near the top of
the hill, and had fallen, like Icarus of old, from his
high estate. His body was covered with a downy
bloom, like the sunny side of a ripe jhiim, and his
head Was adorned with two conical horns, whence
his name, Dicranocephalus, or, “he of the double
helmet.” He was very strong, and resembled Ce-
tonia and IMelolontha. 1 read in “ Maunder ” that
one specimen, now in the British Museum, was
taken on the Himalayan mountains, so that my

‘"harlequik” toads. 161

prize, if not indigenous to the Korea, must have
travelled a pretty long way.

The ancient weather-stained masses are often
heaped up in the strangest confusion, and possess
a positive though borrowed beauty from the Le-
pralias and other lichens with Avhich they are en-
crusted. They are usually of a frosty-white, pale-
green, or rusty-brown ; but sometimes you observe
a bright orange patch. Among these lichen-covered
fragments of primeval granite I found my ‘‘harlequin”
toads ; and as the rain had brought put the worms
and other dainties on • which they feed, they were
hopping lazily about in all directions. I know not
if this very peculiar toad has been described, but I
have preserved some specimens in spirit for Dr.
Gray. The orange, however, has turned dull
yellow from the action of the alcohol.

After much scrambling and unwonted exertion,

I found myself on the top of the hill, among a heap

of old-world stones. It Wcis just after a hea\y rain,

%

and the rocks were still wet and dripping, I saw
nothing but a number of these gorgeous toads, in a

M

162

DEER AND HORSES.

bright livery of black and scarlet, and lichens
enough to have satisfied the desires of the Eev. C.
Berkeley himself The rocks at these elevated situa-
tions are larger, and more \dsible than those below,
which, moreover, are often concealed* by Eleagnus-
bushes, besides Smilax-vines and other creej)ers.

In the same harbour of Tsau-li-an is a long, high
island, familiarly known by us under the name of
Deer Island ,-Kilthough its j^roper appellation is Tsi-
Idung-tau. On this island there is a species of deer,
a kind of Mo^chus, the size of a sheep, the male of
which is without antlers, and the mouth, in the
upper jaw, is armed with very long, sharp-edged,
curved, canine teeth. They keep very close under
cover, and when driven from the shelter of the
dense underwood, bound wildly along, and may
then be shot like hares. The loAver part of their
haunt is shared. by half- wild horses, which go in
large troops, snorting, prancing, and neighing, or
suddenly halting, and having a good long stare at
the intruders on their domain. In the level, grassy
plains, there are ponds frequented by teal, ducks,

WILFOEDS EEST.

163

frogs, and water-beetles. The mountain-springs
form little trickling rivulets, sometimes beard mur-
muring in subterranean cbannels under your feet.
Tlie Centaurea, and the bird’s-foot trefoil, the
willow, the his, and the pink, grow in abundance.
The humble-bees wander, droning over the tops of
the flowers. I captured three or four species of
snout-beetles, one with an egregiously long neck.
I beat Balanus from the young oaks,’^and a cryp-
torhynchus from the Eleagnus-bushes. Melasoma is
common on the willows, and two speoies of Euchlora
on the trailing Smilax. The Apollo ‘butterfly and
the swallow-tail here sun their gorgeous wings.
There arc a few rude huts, and, perchance, a soli-
tary woman, in the universal white Korean gar-
ments, may be seen pounding millet near the low
doorway, while the husband smokes his pipe on the
threshold. Higher up, you comer to huge stones
and masses of rock, all grey, and green, and yellow
with lichens, and with Eleagnus-bushes growing up
between them. From this you gradually make
your toilsome way to Wilford's Rest, where oiu’

164

SUCCESSFUL SPORT.

weary botanist reposed awbile, after gaining tlie
summit of the island. Here, among stubborn,
thorny Smilax, and dwarf oak, forming a short,
dense scrub, and great loose stones, are the pecu-
liar fastnesses of the deer. Without dogs, you
would imagine they were quite unapproachable.
However, no less than nine deer fell before the
ardour, skill, and patience of my messmates.
Sutherland, untiring and sagacious, slew two fat
bucks, after toiling and moiling all the livelong day,
and gazed on their lifeless forms with a smile of
grim satisfaction. A beetle-hunting doctor, in a
quiet, bosky dell, was startled by loud shouts from
the hill-side, high up among the Smilax-vines and
oak-scrub, and, looking up, perceived Warren
wildly flourishing a bloody knife. He was shout-
ing in triumph that with his own hand he had
brought down his deer and had cut its throat. Down
a crooked, stony path Wilford, panting under the
carcase of a fine buck, was advancing, staggering
but elated ; while Schuckburgh came jauntily in,
wdth a young doe slung across his shoulders, and

EXTENDED RANGE OF THE TIGER.

1G5

flimg it down as if lie liad been accustomed to
that sort of thing from his infancy !

*****

Near the shore a shallow creek leaves the mud-flats
dry on the fall of the tide ; and here the Korean
boys capture the Eazorfisii in the same manner as
they do in the North of Scotland. They know by
a sudden little, jet of water from the holes in the
sand that the mollusk is at home, and pass down a
stick, with a jagged iron barb at the end, between
the valves of the shell, which clase immediately,
and the animal is hauled up.

I found the remains of the tiger both at the
Korea and at Vladimir, showing that the range of
this handsome mammal is much more extended
than is generally believed. Mr. Atkinson says it
has been killed in Siberia, having crossed from the
Kirghis Steppe into the Altai# mountains. “ The
Kirghis say that wherever the wild boars are
numerous, there the tiger takes up his abode, as
he is fond of pork.” Our Manchurian skins are
warmer, and more woolly than those from India.

166

TIGER-SKINS.

In the province of Lian-tung they appear to be
tolerably abundant, the skins we purchased in the
Liao-ho being cheap. The Manchu Tartars in
this region dig a deej) wide ditch, of a circular
form, leaving a little island, as it were, in the
centre, on which a man takes up his position. The
ditch is then covered over artfully with light
brushwood, and the Tiger, spying the man in the
middle, makes a spring, and falling short, is speared
or shot by hunters on the look-out. In the Korea,
the skins seem to be much valued, being reserved
for the chiefs. We frequently observed them in the
boats of the great men who came alongside.

167

CHAPTER XIII.

Russian Manchuria—The Coast Line— The Conquerors of Chiua— Tartar
Bravery— Province of Liao-tung— Dangerous iSTavigation— Moutli
of the Liao-ho-A Land of Pigs— Use of Cotton Seeds— Furriers
Shops— Food Plants of Manchuria— Chinese Influence— Dagelet
Island— Sea Bears— Bay of Sio-wu hu— Manchurian Bulls— The
Manchus.

Had Russia not cast a covetous eye upon Man-
churia we should not have known much about that
fertile tract of land, abounding in gold and silk,
rich in coal and cotton, but almost neglected.
Though Manchuria grows rice and tobacco in any
quantity, little attention has as yet been paid to it.
The harbour of Nicolaicvsk being in winter frozen
over, and therefore useless at that period of the
year, the Chinese have sold to Russia this remote
but very desirable slice of Asia, including the
coast from the mouth of the Amur as far south
as Victoria Bay, where the country of the Koreans
begins.

1C8

COAST LINE OF MANCHUEIA.

This tract of newly-acquired Kussian territory
is bounded by the river Usuri, a tributary of the
Amur, and is about one hundred and fifty miles in
width. But for the purchase of this territory by
Eussia, the few Manchu Tartars would still have
hunted the deer in the grassy solitudes, and the
poor Chinese fishermen would still have gathered
the sea-weed on the desolate shores.

Being unacquainted with the fact that this pur-
chase had been recently made, we were about to
commence the survey of this extensive coast-line,

‘ Avhen we became aware of it, while at Olga Bay.
So we did not “ measure the land,” as the Tartars
say. We found very few traces of Eussian in-
fluence and, indeed, although we examined the en-
tire length of coast from Victoria Harboim in the
south, to Vladimir Bay in the north, we scarcely
ever met a human being, this portion of the vast
region of Manchuria being very scantily populated.
This immense territory, extending beyond China
towards the north and east, has a climate equal
to any in Europe, though in winter the cold is

THE CONQUERORS OF CHINA.

169

very severe, the temperature sometimes falling as
low as ten degrees below zero. Our exploration
was limited entirely to the coast, which is flat and
level, but inland the country is described as very
mountainous, the peaks of the Shan- Alin range
being twelve thousand feet high and covered with
snow which never thaws, even in the summer.

The bear and the deer are in undisputed pos-
session of the forest lands, and herds of half-wild
cattle range undisturbed these vast solitudes. We
examined the rich pasture lands and wild savannas
of the coast-line ; but of the inland regions our
information was very scanty, as we had no opportu-
nity of penetrating into the interior of the country.
The villages, however, are said to be large and
populous, and the land is rich and highly culti-
vated. The population of Manchuria is estimated
at fifteen millions.

Kenowned for personal bravery above all the
peoples of the Mongolian race, this obscure region
nourished those conquering Tartars who changed
the ruling dynasty of China ; and to the present

170

GULF OF LIAO-TUNG.

day the original ^varlike instinct still attaches to
the Manchu Tartars, manifesting itself, I believe,
as strongly as .ever. Military appointments are
usually held in China by Tartars, while the more
intellectual Chinese fill the higher offices of the
State. In the late war with China, tlie ]\Ianchu
cavalry charged again and again the British
squadrons, but their undoubted valour was of no
avail, as they were borne downwards and ridden
over by the superior weight of our- horses, while
the poor “ Braves ” endeavoured to keep possession
of the forts. But what could crossbows avail
against Armstrong guns ?

Another portion of Manchuria visited by us be-
sides the extensive coast-line alluded to, was that
situated at the head of the Gulf of Liao-tung,
a territory which is characterised by its level and
unvaried appearance. The Gulf of Liao-tung had
been veiy imj)erfectly surveyed, and we had several
perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes during
our explorations of its shallow and treacherous
waters. One long night the good ship bumped

A LiVND OF PIGS.

171

upon the Bittern shallows ; and on another occasion,
as we were sailing cautiously along, we spoke a
ship steering direct for a dangerous reef, on which
in a little time she would have struck, and, in all
probability have gone to pieces. On boarding her
we found that she was one of the transports en-
gaged during the late war with China in carrying
troops and stores, but wofully out of her reckon-
ing, the officers imagining, till they met with us,
that she was crossing the China Sea !

Having surveyed .the greater portion of the Gulf,
we arrived at the mouth of the Liao-tung, where
there is a town of some considerable importance,
situated at the entrance of the river. On going
ashore we found ourselves immediately in the land
of pigs, and encompassed by the mud and dirt con-
genial to these animals. The poor porkers are
killed and cured here for the markets of China,
and everywhere we were sm*rounded by numerous
bands of victims destined for slaughter. Vicious,
long-headed, and obstinate, incredible numbers of
them were being driven through the muddy streets.

172

USE OF COTTON SEEDS.

making the place resound with their sharp and
piercing cries. Men in huge leathern boots were
staggering under sides of bacon; large, flat carts
were heaped with brown flitches ; boys were reeling
under the weight of enormous hams ; and boars’
heads seemed to gaze reproachfully at you on shop-
boards and out of windows. Ip short, the whole
town was filled with evidences of the thriving trade
by which the inhabitants gained their living.

Hearing, as we rambled on, a continuous noise in
our vicinity, we entered some large, draughty, barn-
like buildings, where huge ponderous stones, set up-
right, were kept revolving round and round by
means of oxen, like horses in a mill. On inquiring
as to the nature of the operation in which they were
engaged, we were told that this was the process ot
expressing oil from the seeds of the cotton plant, ,
which are afterwards formed into oil -cakes for
fattening cattle.

The number of furriers’ shops, filled with rich and
costly furs, is a striking feature in this outlandish
town. The valuable skins of unborn Asiatic lambs

FOOD-PLANTS OF MANCHURIA.

173

from Thibet, sable and martin skins from Eastern
Siberia, and tiger skins obtained from the hunters of
Mongolia, are here collected in prodigious quantities.

In the flourishing fertile inland plains of Man-
churia rice grows in abundance, but in the province
of Liao-tung the land is poor and the country not
so AveU supplied with the means of irrigation. In
consequence of the more imperfect cultivation of
the land only the coarser kinds of cereals and the
common food-plants are produced. Besides barley,
a kind of millet is cultivated which often grows
to an enormous size, and the seeds of whicli are
oTound into a sort of meal which, when boiled,

O

forms excellent porridge. Liao-tung is famous for
its tobacco, and large quantities of it are planted
in the fields higher up the river.

The greater part of Manchuria now belongs to
the Chinese; and, as the Kussians tried by the
destruction of the Polish language to obliterate
every sign of Poland, so have the Chinese substituted
their own language for that of the Manchu, the
Chinese written characters being in daily use. The

174

DAGELET ISLAIfD.

Chinese race has so far suppressed the nationality
of their former conquerors that even in his ov/n
capital, Monkden, the Manchu is hardly his own
master. And’ yet the IManchu seems to have
indelibly impressed his mark on the Chinese,
for the long, plaited tail now so universally a
characteristic of a Chinaman, was originally im-
posed upon them by the Manclms.

AYe 2)roceeded next to Dagelet Island where we
arrived on the 28 th June, at which 2>Griod the
weather was in every way favourable for its exami-
nation. It is one of the discoveries of La Perouse,
and named after the astronomer of the Astrolabe.
As we j)ulled towards the island I found the
descrijDtion of the renowned navigator very exact.
‘‘Yeiy steep,” as he says, “but covered with fine
trees from the sea-shore to the summit. A ramj^art
of bare rock nearly as perpendicular as a wall com-
jfietely surrounds it, except seven little sandy coves
at which it is possible to land.”

AVe saw the grand central ^^euk towering four
thousand feet above us, partially enveloj>ed in

SEA-BEARS.

175

clouds. Around its base were huge, detached
rocks, some of them four or five hundred feet
high, one resembling a sugar-loaf, and another a
rude arch. Within a little distance from the shore,
numbers of sea-bears, of a reddish-brown colour,
came up repeatedly and barked around the boat.
The mad pranks and uproarious conduct of these
stranore ursine creatures offered a striking contrast
to the placid demeanour of the gentle Phocae, or
common seals, which only raised their round heads
above the water, wonderingly gazed around, and
(juietly sank again below the surface. Shoals of
black-fish rose up further off, baring their dark
rounded backs ; while several right-whales were
spouting in the far distance. Some fiying-fish
leapt from the water, pursued by a large fish of
the mackerel tribe, a noticeable fact, — for seals
and flying-fish are not usually seen together. As
we neared the island the wave-beaten limestone
barrier, weather-stained and variegated with en-
crusting lichens, towered up from the surface of the
sea, crowmed with fir-trees, sycamores, and junipers.

176

KOREANS AT WORK.

The officers of the ‘‘Boussole” in La Peronse's voyage
did not land, and we were probably the first Euro-
peans who had ever set foot on the island.

The shore is composed of great limestone
boulders, worn round by the action of the waves;
the tidal rocks are covered with barnacles and
limpets ; and I observed that Monodonta neritoides,
had taken the j^lace of M. labeo, which is the
common sj)ecies on the mainland. The barnacles
are Pollicipcs and Conia, and the Littorina or
periwinkle is similar to that of the mainland.

As we landed in a little bay we perceived three
poor Koreans at work. ^Ye observed that they
were engaged with adze and saw in repairing
a dilapidated boat exactly as La Perouse found
those he saw eighty years ago. They had dried
vast numbers of haliotis or sea-ears, which they
string u2:)on rattans for the Chinese market, and
sell at the rate of tlmee hundred for a dollar.
They likewise collect great heaps of dried seals’
flesh, near which I found a dermaster, a silpha, a
nitidula, and a staphylinus, — all carrion-beetles.

INTERlOll OF THE ISLAND,

177

We made our way into tlie densely- wooded
interior by means of the dried-up watercourses,
which form steep, rough paths among the trees.
Fringing the shore were gigantic Archangelicae, on
the milk-white umbels of which flies, beetles, and
bees were numerous. A species of Cissus was trailing
over the great round boulders, and here and there
was a vine loaded with bunches of small sour gTapes.
The coinmon thyme and Scroplmlaria, a little yellow
Sedum, and a large blue aster, enlivened the edges
of the rocks. The wood was comj^osed of sycamores
and junipers, with the Sambucus japonicus, the
berries of which are red and not black, as in the
common elder. I was curious about the denizens
of so small and isolated an island. The birds I
observed were cormorants, hawks, gulls, pigeons,
blackbirds, sparrows, and small bii'ds like willow-
wrens. The Korean fishermen dry large quantities
of petrels, leaving their skins in mouldering heaps
along the shore. The only indication of a mammal
I met with was the skull of a cat, which may
have belonged either to a wild species from the

N

178

BAY OF SIO-WU-HU.

mountainous interior of the island^ or to a domestic
animal wrecked in a junk. I found among molluscs
the very peculiar slug of the mainland, a creature
with the mantle covering the whole of its hack ; a
little shining land-shell, named Zua, and two
species of snails. Tlie only reptile I noticed was
a small snake coiled up under a stone. Under
the dead fallen leaves and flat stones, I found a
centipede about four iuches in length ; besides
two kinds of thousand-legs,” and a large, brown
wood-louse, called Armadillidium by naturalists.
As for the beetles, they were too numerous to
mention. We enjoyed a refection in a small se-
cluded cove, ’and then pulled partly round the
island, admiring many rocky pinnacles and off-lying
rugged arches, and then rejoined the ship, which
was standing off and waiting for the boat.

There is a channing little bay on the Manchurian
coast, which rejoices in the name of Sio-wu-hu.
You land on the sandy beach, to the left of a clear
running stream, and you see before you a green
level plain bounded by distant Kills. Cattle and

MANCHURIAN BULLS.

179

horses graze here, for althougli the soil is sandy,
yet the pasturage is good. The biixTs-foot trefoil
grows on it, in company with many grasses not to
he distinguished from those of England, — the very
dandelion seems the same. On the outlying
precincts and among the young oaks which skht
the plain, that glorious wide-mouthed blue-bell,
Platycodon grandiflora, blooms in all its pride,
and Trollius asiaticus is as common as buttercups
in a Hampshire meadow. Now the IManchurian
bulls have stamped bare patches in this small
savannah, and have also left other traces of their
presence. In these deposits, associated with Apho-
clius, Geotrupes, and Onthophagus, all shard-beetles,
we discover '' Sisyphus ! ” You suppose we easily
win this prize. On the contrary, its acquisition
was made with considerable difficulty.

AVliat is that dark body moving steadily and
slowly across the plain ? It is a herd of cattle com-
manded by a patriarch bull, with a great black head,
reddish eyes, short horns, and a dewlap that nearly
touches the ground. We are serenely engaged in

180

HERD OF CATTLE.

disentombing Sisyplius, and just looking up we con-
tinue our occupation. The moving mass of cows and
calves, led on by the patriarch, steadily advances.
There are many stoppages, much pawing of the
ground, and some low bellowings, but — onward it
comes. Prudence suggests a retreat ; courage, and
a desire for more specimens of Sisyphus, urge our
remaining. So, putting on an indifferent air, we go
on turning over the sandy deposits. This seems to
have some effect on the bovine party. The patri-
arch bull, his admiring cows and offspring, the
playful calves, make a dead halt and stand staring.
Thus we continue while a shard remains unex-
amincd, when we rise and, resuming our stick,
stroll, with a would-be-careless air, towards the
beach. The patriarch bull with the great curly
head and dewlap, and all his wives and concubines,
follow us down to the water, where, luckily a boat
being handy, we leave - them. AVhether our small
stercoraceous ebon friend, with the gray, curved
hind legs, of these Tartarean regions, be the Sisy-
phus Scha3fferi of the illustrious Swede, or a new

MAXCHU TARTARS.

181

species not yet described, remains for the present a
mystery.

*

The Manclm Tartars arc strongly made and
active, as befits the life they lead, for are they
not all hunters and well acquainted with the
chase? Their rifle and their wolf-like dogs are
their constant companions. The men chiefly
difler from their Chinese associates in their
lank black hair being parted in the middle, and
hanging down behind in two long plaited tails.
Their dress is similar to that of the Chinese, and
they are never without a knife and a tobacco-
pouch adorned with blue beads. Snakes being
troublesome in the long grass they bind straw round
their legs like Irish reapers.

The Manchu women we met were clothed in loose
blue jackets, close round the neck, and reaching
as far as the waist, and fastened with loops on the
right side ; a petticoat of a bright red reaching half
way below the knee. Their legs were bound round
with straw as a defence against snake-bites, and

1S2

HUNTING THE DEER.

covered Avitli spiral strips of red, white, and Idue
cloth. On the Avrists they wore brass and Avhite
metal bracelets ; their hair Avas AAmrn in tAAm long
tails, reaching, to the AA^aist, Avith narroAv strips
of red cloth at the ends. There Avas an ornament
at the back of the head bet\A^een the tails, a
leathern band edged Avith blue beads,- AAuth a
central line of cowries and brass beads hanging
beloAA^ it. Their earrings AA^ere of silver, AAdtii
pendent brass rings and jade-stone ornaments ;
and a small ring of silver, Avith a glass drop to
it, Avas Avorn through the right ala of the nose. An
old lady of the party, having a partiality for spirits,
helped herself to friend Buckley s collecting bottle,
containing rum — and beetles. The latter she ima-
gined to be there to add a piquancy to the former,
but could not make up her mind to SAvalloAv them.

The deer, A\diich are numerous on the plains,
are hunted at early dawn, as they come to drink
in the small streams, among the long grass,
at the bottom of the broad valleys. The hunters
creep on their hands and knees, and on the

LAND OF THE MANCHUS.

183

slif^litest alarm throw themselves clown, and then
o

again cautiously advance till within certain range,
when they fire, and usually bring down their
cparry.

I had pictured the land of the Llanchus as bleak
and barren, but I found myself, as it were, in a
(U’eat garden run wild. From the sandy banks of

o o

a small trout stream, where plenty of fish were
rising, I was surrounded by large crimson roses,
white-flowered peonies, spotted tiger-lilies, a scarlet
single-flowered lychnis, clusters of clematis with
dark, hairy, bell-shaped blossoms, lilies of the
valley, tall blue-flowered Polymoniums, and the
bfioiit yellow blossoms of Trollius asiaticus. The
rest of the vegetation was made up of oak-scrub,
plume-like sedges, tall grasses, and the stems of a
oiant Archangclica, with here and there Geranium
pratense and a pretty red Valerian.

Beetles turned up in great abundance, the dear
cuckoo was heard repeating over and over its
favourite monotone, and the skylark overhead was
singing gloriously.

184

SNAILS.

Besides some fine examples of Acusta laeta,
a delicate snail, we observed members of a fine
Succinea, or amber-snail, on the broad-ribbed leaves
of a species of Hoteia, which grows abundantly
in the moist places. The incessant attacks of
mosquitoes and sand-flies, however, obliged us
frantically to fly from this locality to drier and
more elevated ground.

185

CHAPTER XIV.

Wild Cattle— The Dog aud his Master— A Haul of Salmon— Seaweed-
collecting Fisheumen — A Jovial Crew — A Weakness for Skulls
Olga Bay— Capture of a strange Insect— Place of Refuge for Old
Seals— Appearance of three Ainos— St. Vladimir Baj^— A Useful
Beacon — The Emerald Wing.

Beef was wanted by our sailors, and tlie owner
of some half-wild cattle was willing to sell, pro-
vided the animals could be caught. The beasts,
which at this Jeafy period arc out in the wilder-
ness, revelling in the luxuriant grasses, are very
difficult to approach. A party of seamen, however,
eager for the fun, were furnished with ropes and
running bowlines ; and after much tearing through
brushwood, floundering in swamps, shouting, laugh-
ing, and mad excitement, succeeded in making
prisoners of two little plump, bright-eyed bullocks.
I followed in the wake of this merry party, and in
my scramble I never saw a country so entirely given

186

TJIE DOG ANT) HIS MASTER.

up to nature. Hardly any traces of man were visible
— the only signs I saw were straggling herds, and
an occasional deers head^ gnawed by the dogs of
the Manchu hunters.

On one occasion, as we were hauling the seine, a
noble Tartar deer-hound, hiwn-coloured, and with a
splendid brush for a tail, picked a cjuarrel with
another dog of less .degree, the bone of contention,
so to sjfeak, being a fislfs head. In the fight Avhich
followed, the Tartar was the conqueror, and so
excited the admiration of the First Lieutenant that
he set his aftections upon him ; but the master of
Quilee — for so the dog was named — a poor Chinese
fisherman, was loth to part with his friend on all
fours.” Actually, though a Chinaman, he was
insensible to the temptation of dollars I The First
Lieutenant was greatly disappointed because he
could not prevail upon the poor fisherman to part
with the animal; but suddenly a brilliant idea
flashed across his mind — recklessly stripping off his
coat, he ofiered it for Quilee. The brass buttons
and gold lace were too much for the Mongol.

A HAUL OF SALMON.

187

Poetically speaking, he should have seized the
faithful hound in his arms, and rushed wildly
away, after the manner of the Bedouin and his
beautiful Arab mare 1

In the evening the seine was hauled with much
success. We lauded at the first cast twenty-three
very fine salmon, their weight ranging from tliree-
and-a-half to fourteen pounds ; and a few small
turbot from three to six pounds each. We caught
next a shark six feet long. In all we took thirty-
nine salmon, most of them from eight to fourteen
pounds; half-a-dozen turbot; and a bucket-full of
fine prawns. The salmon were the Salino oricntalis
of Pallas, and the pretty spotted species named S.
leucomaensis. The **tui'bot ol the sailors, I believe,
is the Japanese halibut (Hippoglossus olivaceus).
The hideous star-gazer, with its great staring eyes,
starting from the top of its rough, spiny head, the
Japanese bass, and Burgher’s gurnard, were likewise
taken. All these fish, enough to allow' the ship’s
company a pound and a-half per man, were taken
amongst the tangled masses of Laminaria and the

1S8

BUKNIA’a THE WATER.”

narrow grass-like Zostora, in the brackish water
near the month of a little river which runs into
Sio-wu-hu Bay.

Near the shore were several temporar}^ conical
huts, owned by a lot of migratory seaweed-collect-
ing fishermen. They spread the broad glutinous
fronds of the Laminaria in the sun, and after they
are thoroughly dried, collect them in large bundles,
which they stack, covering them with coarse mat-
ting and straw. These miserably poor men are won-
derfully expert in the management of their narrow
canoes, which -they fonn from the trunk of a single
tree. They sj)ear the salmon, upon which they chiefly
feed, by torchlight, using as torches large pieces of
birch bark. Although so poor they seem contented
with their lot, and, in the evening, after the labours
of the day, smoke and chat, and make discordant
music by playing on certain quamt reed-pipes.

I landed again with the seining party, for,
besides the exciting pleasure of catching good fish,
there was a chance of securing something interesting
to the naturalist, if not good for the “ pot."' We

A SEINING PARTY.

189

chose a shallow sandy hay, full of “ tangle, where
a little rivulet runs into the sea, for in such
localities do the salmon love to congregate. It
was evening, and the poor Chinese fishermen had
hauled their canoes high up on the beach. They
had lighted their wood fires, and were peaceably
employed, some smoking, and others preparing the
supper of fish. Huge rocks, 'crowned ivith trees,
dark and solemn in the twilight, formed the back-
ground ; and already the fii-c-flies had commenced
their intermittent illumination. The seine was
taken out in the “joUy-bo,at,” and formed a vast
semicircle in the water. The sailors were scattered
through the bush, cutting down trees, and making
huge fii-cs to attract the fish. Soon parties in long
boots or with bare legs assembled at either end of
the seine, and singing songs, if not select, yet cheery,
commenced hauling in the net. Glittering scales
and silver}' bellies soon showed themselves above
the water; and as the seine was landed amid
great excitement, a tumbling, leaping mass of fish
was thrown upon the sand.

190

A JOVIAL CEEW.

Here's a kinger/' cries one of tke sailors, as lie

fists ” a noble salmon.

“ Only a loader,” cries anotlier, casting liigli up
among the bushes an ugly brown Tetraodon.

Here’s an adjective big turbot,” says a short
man, with a rubicund proboscis.

‘‘ Here’s shrimp sauce for the turbot,” says a long,
pale boy, with a squint in his eye, picking up
prawns three inches long.

“ Here,” sings out another of the jovial crew, “is
a curio for the Doctor.”

With that, a haiiy man of the sea brought me
a large, yellow, somewhat apathefic crab, with the
query, “Please, sir, is this any good ; I never seed
another like ’im 1 ” I thanked him com’teously, and
took possession of a splendid, perfect, living specimen
of Telmessus serratus, a rare crab of goodly size.

* * * • ^ *

The remark of the “ needy knifegrinder ” to the
compassionate gentleman who inquired into his
histoiy, “Story! God bless you, I have none to
tell, sir,” will equally apply to me. And yet, as I

A WEAKNESS FOR SKULLS.

191

meditate over a quiet pipe in my floating sanctum,
each bone and skull that hangs around me recalls
certain little incidents which I am unwilling to
keep entirely to myself. That little cramped foot
reminds me of the bombardment of Canton, and
was taken from an unfortunate woman who ^vas
killed by one of our shells. That baby-skeleton
points to the prevalence of *infanticide in China,
for its owner was drowned in the Pearl River by its
unnatural parent. That mummified foetal deer
brings before my mincfs eye the shaven-pated
doctors of Japan, who find in such as that a valu-
able remedy. *

I confess to a weakness for skulls : from the
simple cartilaginous rudiment of the cuttle-fish to
the ample dome where intellect once sat supreme,
they have all great attractions in my eyes. When,
therefore, I pitch my foot ” against a skull, like
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, I take it up, and
regard it with speculative interest. I touch lightly,
however, on the bleached human skulls I obtained
by the banks of the Pearl River. Suffice it to say

192

MY COLLECTION OF CRANIA.

that several, in beautiful preservation, adorn my
collection. In one I discovered in a “ chatty ” on
the green summit of Tiger Island, a snake had
formed her nest ; and another in my possession was
the plaything of little Chinese children, who were
rolling it about on the ground.

For many skulls I am indebted to the prowess of
our sportsmen. l\Iy seals are from Todomosiri, my
great eagle is from Manchuria, my Moschus crania
are from the Korea, and my albatross and giant
petrel from the broad Ibosom of the Atlantic.
Others are of my own procuring. Thus, -my turtles
and my pigmy deer were from Sunda Strait ; my
scaly ant-eater is from Whampoa ; my Babirusa’s
skull is a present ; and a few were purchased from
Canton old curiosity shops. JMy largest skull once
belonged to an antlered monarch of Manchuria, and
its acquisition was made in the following way. A
party had leapt on shore at Sio-wu-hu, and, like
young horses just let loose, had dispersed themr
selves in various directions for a glorious run.
Some scoured the plain, rejoicing in their liberty,

BEAUTIFUL SCENE.

193

and gathered great bunches of roses and peonies ;
some wandered thoughtfully along the strand,
thinking possibly of home and Polly ; one, gun in
hand, dived among the oak-woods, intent on game ;
and one, sweeping-net aloft, waded gleefully among
the flowers. Just as the sun was declining, and all
were thinking of going on board, a form approached
from across the plain, like amorous Falstaff at
Herne's old oak, huge antlers branching out
above his head, a vasculum, cram-full of plants,
across his back, and in each hand blushing

floral trophies. It was Wilford of the seven-

♦

league boots," who had found the cervine relic in
the woods.

One day I was sauntering along a path, winding,
narrow, and irregular, by the side of a rocky gully
in Tsu-Sima, an island in the Korea Strait. The
scene around me was very beautiful. . The gurgling
water rolled clear and sparkling over its stony bed,
except where a big boulder checked its even course,
when a deep pool was formed, where little trout-like
fish calmly disported themselves. The sides of the

o

OLGA BAY.

lU

ravine, clothed v^ith leafy beauty, rose up around ;
and trees of great variety, waving their green heads
in the soft sea-breeze, were springing from every
rift in the slate-stone rocks. Onward I strolled, now
taking a snail from the bushes, and anon making
prisoner of a longicorn, till I emerged, from under
the wild mulberry-trees, upon an upland slope,
green and pleasant to the eye, and bordered with
dark woods and yellow raspberry-bushes. Suddenly
my attention is arrested. What is that white
gleaming object in the* grass? A cranium of some
unknown deer of Japan ? Nay, smile not, gentle
reader ; ’tis a horse’s skull !

AVe were now in Olga Bay, a deep inlet,
ending in a river, with wild, uncultivated, rocky
sides, covered with wood from the water’s edge.
I worked my way from near the entrance to where
a party was hauling the seine on the right bank,
wading through long, rank grass, sweeping for
insects among the flowers, and l}eating the young
oaks, all the while stumbling over mouldering trunks
of trees, and loose, old, moss-grown stones. Thus

STRANGE INSECT.

195

I wandered on in the clear sunshine, along the
sandy shore, with its heaps of drift wood ; picking
up ground-beetles under great chips of trees, felled
long ago by hunters ; detecting Cecina manchurica,
a new form of mollusk, under damp logs near the
sea. I was half maddened by mosquitoes in the
cool shade of crowded trees ; the gauze veil which I
shipped in despair to guard my face from their
attacks half blinded me.

A strange insect in the air, flying like a longi-
corn, arrested my attentioh. At risk of broken
shins I gave chase to it, and captured it. I found
it to be a Myrmeleon-like Neuropteron, with curious
cup-shaped knobs at the end of its long antennoe.
I passed on among the prostrate branches of a huge
linden tree, lately felled by fishermen, and still laden
with blossoms, from which bees were busy extracting
nectar. I came across bushes crowded with Canthari,
or blistering-beetles, of a pale red colour, with green
head and thorax. Hearing an ominous rustle of
dead leaves on the dry, elevated ground, I looked

,and saw the slow, fat, undulating form of a great-

o 2

196

WEED-COVERED ARCH.

headed adder, angrily making his way from the
invader of his solitude.

Wilde pursuing my researches, I suddenly came
upon a stone arch of uneven granite, rude, natural,
and Cyclopean, overgrown with weeds, mottled with
lichens, and half-concealed by a rank undergrowth,
yet a veritable arch of rugged stone. It suggested
the idea of those rough-hewn stones of Stonehenge,
and the primseval altars, built by white-robed,
bearded Druids, on plains and in sacred groves full
of mistletoe-covered oaks, for pui^oses of mystic
and most probably unholy worship. Under this
rude arch I crept with a childish kind of pleasure,
although to have gone round it would have been
far easier. .The strong lines of a spider’s web of
unusual size, with a fat, bloated occupant in the
centre, opposed my progress, but only for a
moment ; Arachne’s web was rent, and the “ long-
Jegged spinner ” placed in durance vile. When at
• length fatigued with my exertions, I was reposing
on a log near the shore, I observed not very far off
a something in the drift, which, on examination,

APPEARANCE OF THREE ATNOS.

197

turned out to be an imperfect skull of Steno^ a
genus of true dolpbins.

To the north of Cape Notoro, in Aniwa Bay,
Saghalien, is a rocky and lonely spot. It is a long,
low point, projecting into the beautiful wide bay,
composed of great rounded rocks and drifted
shingle. Here, sheltered by the granite boulders,
and concealed by coarse grass and reeds, come the
old and the sick of the seal tribe which inhabit

I

these waters, to seek refuge from their fellows, and
to breathe their last in peace. The impress of their
huge bodies may be traced on the dead, soiled,
flattened herbage.

From the quantity of bones strewn about the
place, I think this must be the chief bemetery of
these poor animals. The only sounds that disturb
the silence are the harsh notes of wild swans pass-
ing high overhead, and the frightened caw of a
rook, soaring, dodging, and trpng in vain to elude
the pursuit of a determined hawk. The solitary
wildness of the spot is hardly relieved by the un-
expected appearance of three Ainos, aborigines of

198

ST. VLAbiMIR BAY.

Saghalicn, who have come over the neighbouring
cliffs to gaze upon the brown-haired strangers.
These stand motionless and silent, watching our
every movement with a fixed and wondering stare.
Long, white, spinous processes of the dorsal ver-
tebrae of a whale, sticking up above the grass,
look like tombstones of departed Phocae. I dis-
covered here a rare prize, in the skull of a large
seal, with a vertical bony crest extending from
the frontal bone to the occiput. An imper-
fect skull of the Halicore, or dugong, was another
grand addition to the number of my specimens. I
obtained, besides, the crania — ^both, alas ! much
injured — of two species of Delphinus, or true
dolphins. *

We were now in St. Vladimir Bay, a wide and
deep recess on the Manchurian coast, a little north
of Olga. Sea-cliffs bound the long, curved outline
of the bay, their summits green A\dth oaks. Below
them the ground is level, and a belt of verdure
extends from the cliffs to the waters edge. The
undergrowth is dark and humid, and the number of

USEFUL BEACON.

199

fallen trees, in various states of decay, promise well
for snails, slugs, and fungus-loving beetles. Boleti
stud their rotting boles, and in these Mycetophagi
reward our diligent research. Shade of Fabricius !
what swarms of insect life ! The ants alone are
worthy the pen of Nylander; and as for the
spiders, the erudition of Walckenacr, and the in-
dustiy of Blackwall, would be needful to portray
their varied forms, and illustrate their wondrous in-
stincts. I penetrated a thicket, where bushes, laden
with bunches of currants, grew all around. While
feeding on these with the greedy voracity of a school-
boy, my attention was diverted to a split bamboo,
with the valve of a Pecten, or scallop-shell, stuck in
the fissure. A nearer scrutiny assured me this was
meant as an indication of uxtter ; and lo ! a clear
pool lay hid among the herbage. Some wandering
Tartar had been here, and, having slaked his thirst,
had in gratitude placed this useful beacon. But
what is that suspended fmin a bough which over-
hangs the beach ? It is a skull, the skull of a bear,
for the lower jaw and other bones of the defunct

200

SKULL OF A BEAR.

Bruin are lying on the 'shingle beneath ; and there
hangs his cranium, so far beyond my reach that I
was disposed to leave with some exclamation like
that of the fox when disappointed of the grapes.
Some of the sailors, however, I thought might be
able to obtain it for me. As good-luck would have
it, the sailors happened to want water, and came
here for it. Close at hand was a tiny spring, from
which distilled a slender, triclding rivulet from the
cliff, filling an excavation in the shingle, w^hich,
being enlarged, a goodly cistern was formed. By
means of a hose and Earfs engine, the cold, clear
water was speedily transferred into a canvas tank
in the pinnace ; and in due time one of the sailors
undertook to get possession of the cranium for me.
Mounting with the agility peculiar to his class, he
soon had the prize in his hands, and descending
quickly, laid it at my feet.

Between the little river which runs throu<?h the
plain at the head of the bay and the stony, rank,
weed-grown little hills on the right, is a narrow,
grassy strip, thickly studded with the green culms

EMERALD WING.

201

and broad white umbels of a gigantic species of
Archangelica, and where Solomon’s-seal, and Trol-
lius orientalis, grow in the wildest profusion. A
long, grey Lixus, or snout-beetle, bores into all the
stems of the Archangelica, drilling round holes
with his cylindrical snout. Here Buckley found
an “ emerald wing,” the el5rtron, or wing-cover, of
a genus of Buprestidse, or gold-beater, which was
greatly admired by the coleoptero-maniacs. Every
man of them is desirous of obtaining the perfect
insect. Some go north, and some south. The
plains are scoured, the mountains climbed, and the
valleys searched ; but all their researches are in
vain. Tis not in mortals to command success.”

I think it rather hard that unsuccessful efforts are
usually consigned to oblmon. Successful results
are triumphantly set forth. The discovery of new
genera — the detection of beautiful forms for the

O

first time brought to light by the insect-net or the
dredge — are duly recorded with pride and gratifica-
tion ; but who shall chronicle the failures, the keen
disappointments, the labour throvTi away, and the

202

HUNT FOE, AN EMERALD BEETLE.

energy and cnterj)risc fruitlessly expended in such
researches ? How disappointing it is, when tons of
mud have been sifted, when bushels of sand have
been examined, when huge stones have been
laboriously upturned, and when the bushes have
been beaten in despair, to discover nothing to
reward all this labour, nothing to kindle hope or
animate to future exertions — not even a beetle to
reward tlie patient enthusiast.

To rctm’n, however, to the ‘‘emerald wing!’^
Colhnson the indefatigable was seen minutely
semtinising the fissured bark of old trunks, and the
sound bark of stately trees, peering, like a jackdaw,
into rotten wood, or scratching up the earth like a
terrier who suspects he is on the trail of a rat. On
a sudden, riveting his gaze on a young oak, he gave
utterance to a cry as wild and exulting as an Indian
war-whoop ; for he had seen the owner of the
“ emerald wing ” sunning itself on the tender green
surface of a leaf. This reminded me of another
great hunt for an emerald beetle (Dr)rpta emarginata)
with old Turner, a poor but far-fiimed and eccentric

ENTHUSIASTIC ENTOMOLOGIST.

■ 203

Collector of Insects, now no more, in Hampshire, at
. pretty Alverstoke. In vain we toiled and tpre up
the grassy bank, the old man growling and swear-
ing in a deep undertone at Anchomenns prasinus,
another green but common bettle, which was always
running out and giving him false hopes. At
length, he found a veritable Drypta. Drawing a
long breath, he exclaimed, this time aloud, and
with a jubilant expression, Glory ! glory ! glory !
I got hin !

204

CHAPTER XV.

Expedition to a Lake — Search for U'cw Specimens— Change of Scene —
Manchurian Flowers— Crickets and Grasshoppers— Dragon-flies—
Trapa natans — “Dash” discomfited — A Picnic Party — Capture
of Crustaceans — Enthusiastic Beetle-hunters — Skeleton Trees —
Crj’ptochiton Stelleri — An Impressive Scene.

Whilst still at anclio^ in this pleasant Bay of
Vladimir, \rc heard of a lake not very far distant,
and determined to explore it. We were greatly
tempted to this expedition by the beauty of the
weather, which, indeed, was glorious. The boat
was got ready — a light, four-oared gig — and a little
dredge was soon placed in the stern-sheets. A
modest bottle of beer, and a few other creature
comforts, were pro\dded for us; and “away flew
the light bark o'er the silvery bay." As we ap-
proached the shore, the round head of a seal came
up alongside the boat, and his wondering eyes gazed
seriously at the “merry men" bending to their oars.

AN OFFERING TO THE DOCTOR.

205

Our sporting messmate essayed to shoot a cormo-
rant, which was sitting, gorged Avitli fish, on the
low, dark rocks that showed their dangerous backs
above the water, but was unsuccessful. The hand-
some, black-tailed gulls, unused to firearms, were
not disturbed by the report, but continued to hover
boldly around ; and the little guillemots, in pairs,
dived about, or flew in a straight line over the
surface of the bay. But what^ has that little
party of sailors, struggling under the weight of
some unwonted curio, picked up along the shore ?
As we land, they bear it aloft with an air of
triumph, and with comic gravity lay it as an
offering at the doctor’s feet. It is the dorsal
vertebra of a whale !

On landing, we had again to launch our boat in
a stream which would conduct us to the waters of
the lake ; but before we could do so, we had to
haul it over a bed of loose shingle, and this
demanded the tug of war. All hands assisted, andi
after great exertions, accompanied with some rather
strong language, we succeeded ; but the amount of

206

LOOKING AFTER NEW SPECIMENS.

pushing, dragging, shouting, wading, struggling,
and splashing, before we managed to get our
slender gig -again afloat, was almost incredible.
When again seated in the boat, we shortly after
found oui'selves in the channel which nearly con-
nects the lake with the waters of the bay.

Notwithstanding all this excitement, and the
novelty of the scene, I did not forget to look after
new specimens. ^ Near the salt-water shore I
observed a large blue Salvia mingliiig with the
red flowers of Sedum Telephium and the yellow
hawkweed ; but as we approached the fresh-
water shore, these plants were replaced by a gay
yellow Iris and a blue Lobelia. Alarmed at oui*
approach a quail rose with a sudden whirr, and
a hawk was disturbed taking his noonday meal on
a stone, the feathers of his prey forming a circle all
around him. Swifts were hovering in considerable
numbers overhead, and as we neared the lake, we
^aw ducks and gulls disporting themselves on its
calm surface.

The first thing we did was to pull to the other

EXPEDITION TO A LAKE.

207

end, sounding as we went with a hand lead. We
found the lake very shallow, having only twenty-
one feet in the deepest part. The bottom, we
observed, was composed of soft black mud, and,
towards the shallow further extremity, of fine clean
sand ; the circumference being bounded by a belt
of shingle. The water was perfectly fresh, very
clear, and extremely free from weeds. We noticed
but few fish, and no trout or salmon. Several
plaice and mullet were, however, caught in the

narrow channel leading from the lake to the bay.

* •

The only crustacean visible was the “ hairy-handed
crab,” Eriocheir japonicus. In the sandy parts the
dredge supplied us with numerous fine specimens
of a dark-brown, black Corbicula, but this bivalve
appeared to be the only molluscous inhabitant of
the lake. In the swampy pools of the immediate
vicinity, however, we obtained two species of a
pond-snail, or Planorbis, but could not detect the
presence of either Ancylus or Limmea.

We left our boat now to explore the woods
around. In traversing the swampy plain in the

208

EXPLORATION OF THE WOOD.

biglit of tlie deep hay> "we captured several large
black and yellow Lej)turas in the overblown
peonies. We also swept with our net the rank
grass for jumping Halticas and golden Chiysomelas.
As we ascended the green hill-side, the grass
appeared to grow higher and higher, till at last we
became buried in a dense scrub of hazels and young
oaks. We were also made painfully aware of those
intolerable pests, the mosquitoes. Around us were
numerous seared and blackened skeleton trees, rearino-
their gaunt, weird, leafless forms above the verdure.
There were others, however, of nobler proportions,
through whose great spreading branches we could
spy the lovely pied woodpecker exploring their
rugged trunks, and sounding for rotten places with
his pick-like beak. With the exception of a
chattering magpie, and a little shy ground-squirrel
scampering over the fallen trees, we saw no other
sign of animal life in the still, dark wood.

On emerging, however, from the umbrage of the
trees, into the open spaces near the borders of the
lake, the aspect of the scene was entirely changed.

ORTHOPTEROUS INSECTS.

200

The humming-hird liawkmotli was seen hovering
over the thistle-heads. Longicorn beetles could be
perceived winging their way, steady and undevia-
ting, as is their wont, over the neighbouring tree-
tops. The tall Mecalopses and Hoteias had run to
seed, the roses were gone, the great white peonies
were mostly withered, and the petals of the scarlet
lychnis were no. longer bright. In their places,
however, we saw^ the large expanded bells of
Platycodon grandifiora in every grassy spot among
the young oaks; the monkshood and larkspur,
the tiger-lily and the Chinese pink in full bloom.
The great noisy world ” of orthopterous insects
here seemed to reign supreme. In the tall, flowery
grass, among the blooming undergrowth, in the
foliage of the young oaks, on the tops of moss-
covered stones, and by the reedy margins of the
brook, they hopped, chirped, croaked, and hissed.
I never saw so many crickets and grasshoppers
congregated in one spot, so variegated in colour,
so varied in form. Tliere were green and brown,
solitary and social ; with short legs and long legs ;

210

ORASS OP PARNASSUS.

singing and skipping for very \rantonness, because
the sun was shining so gaily, and the late sh6wer
had made the tender grass so green and toothsome.
And then the dragon-flies I Gauze-winged beauties
with fiat yellow bodies, delicately alighting for an
instant on some dead twig; chasing each other
vehemently across the swampy pools, or dashing
Avildly before your face in their eager pursuit of
prey.

As we approached the shores of the lake, we
traversed a marshy spot fragrant with mint, and
covered here and there with great patches of tansy
and southernwood. Here, also, gleaming amid the
rushes, were the pure white flowers of the Grass- of
Parnassus. Hundreds of little green tree-frogs
were squatting flat on the broad leaves of the colts-
foot ; and anon, a warty toad scrambled through
the moist grass, or a graceful harmless snake
glided silently towards the water. In the shallow
parts of the lake itself we saw green patches of
Trapa natans, a water plant, its four-horned curious
fruit, and radiating leaves with buoy-like footstalks,

UNFORTUNATE ENCOUNTER.

ail

forming light and elegant rafts upon the water.
Alodg the weedy margin a few sanderlings and
plovers were feeding, and as we looked across, a
wild duck suddenly emerged from the rushes, and
with great noise, and sj)lashing with his wings,
struck across the shallow water.

We cooked our crabs, smoked our pipes, and
spent a glorious day. The incidents which befell
some of our party were neither numerous nor sen-
sational, yet, perhaps, they deserve some mention.
As we were sauntering along, the little dog “ Dash,”
pricking up his ears, disappeared in a very excited
state in the bush, but shortly made his appearance
discomfited and crest-fallen. His cars and mouth
were scratched and bleeding, and we imagined he
had done battle with a marten or a badger, and had

got the worst of it. B also had an unfortunate

encounter, though the result in his case was that
he was more alarmed than hurt. While patiently
fishing ill the stream, he was bitten by a snake. .
The doctor of course was at once sent for, and his
attention was* directed to the wound with a look of

212

TOUR OF THE LAKE.

serious inquiry. After a scientific examination of
the reptile^s mouth, however, he saw there wa^ no
danger, for no poison-fangs were to be seen. He
was able, therefore, to appease the patient’s anxiety
by inspiring him with the confident anticipation of
a speedy cure.

In making the tour of the lake, we found our
progress on several occasions interrupted by narrow
streams from the hills. Some of these we bounded
over, and through some of them we waded ; but
there was one too wude for leaping, and too deep
for wading. AVe were, therefore, under the neces-
sity of stripping, and as w^e required our clothes on
the other side, we tied them in a bundle and lashed
them to the tops of one heads. A few strokes then
carried us across, with our garments perfectly diy,
and in a state to be resumed at once.

*

AYe again found here in Manchuria the crab with
. a hairy hand (Eriocheir japonicus). The manner of
our meeting with this curious creature was in this

O

AA^e had joined a pic-nic to the lake. There

wise.

LIGHTING A FIRE.

213

was Wilford of tlie '' seven-league boots,” vasculum
on back, intent on plants; there was Buckley,
fishing-rod in hand, eager for sahnon ; Sutherland,
thoughtful, caring for beetles ; and the doctor,
renewing his youth in the fellowship of that gay
band. At length, fatigued with our several exer-
tions, for even pleasure solnetimes becomes a toil,
we lay supine upon the sand, under the shade of
the hazels that fiinged the margin of the lake.
While one was preparing the soothing pipe, another,
prone over the water, was taking huge horse-like
draughts of the limpid element. As sailors ashore
must always light a fire, some collected little sticks
for the inside, while others picked up larger boughs
for the outside. A spark was speedily produced in
a bunch of dried grass, which was waved in the air
till a blaze was created, and the fire was then
kindled.

A fire, however, without anything to cook is bad,
so we cast about for something to eat. We had a
fowling-piece, but there were no birds to shoot.
The fishes would not allow themselves to be caught,

r

i

214

DINING ON CRABS.

and for beetles we bad no appetite. Crabs, how-
ever, there were in such abundance that we had
only to pick and choose. So we waded, bare-
legged, into the lake, and in the shallows of the
fresh-water we captured these desirable crustaceans,
of the species known as Eriocheir japonicus. Each
specimen as it was captured was cast upon the
glowing embers. Biscuit we had, and wild onions
grew in the sand around. Serene and undisturbed
in that wild spot, Avhere no boatswain's pipe assailed
our ears, where no “bear a hand” was heard, and
where the noise and bustle of the ship were quite
forgotten, we thankfully cooked our crabs, and
enjoyed our frugal meal.

Some “ Innocent ” not yet versed in the deep
mysteries of beetle-lore, and not inured to the toils
of beetle-hunting, who may never have seen, as
I have, the indefatigable Doctor Power on his
stomach in a ditch, spectacles on nose, and the
perspiration streaming down his checks with his
fossorial exertions, may imagine that because I
have some thousand beetles nicely carded in my

DIFFICULTIES OF BEETLE-HUNTING.

215

atore-box, I have had no trouble but to pick them
up. I can tell that complacent know-nothing that
he is cpiite mistaken. With what exertions, for
instance, are those great carnivorous ground-beetles,
the Carabi, taken ! One would stare with amaze-
ment at certain enthusiasts (for I have imbued
many with* the love of beetles) rushing wildly over
the boulders and large flat stones in dried-up water-
courses, at the “ imminent deadly risk ” of bruised
shins and sprained ankles, eager in the pursuit of
tantalizing, active Cicindelae, huge stones upturned
in their course over the plain, and their habiliments
torn as they forced their way through the scrub
along some beach-fringing belt of trees. Here in
Manchuria we used to land in a ship s boat, and weie
left to the tender mercies of the moscpiitoes and
bears ; the gnats being put first because their name
is legion, and their torment is nearly unbearable.
Bears, however, are so “few and far between,'
that although I have several of their skulls, I only
had a good look at one, and he escaped with his
valuable life, though several of us thirsted foi

216

SKELETON TREES.

bis blood. We then forced our way breast-high
in tangled brushwood, long, hard grass, and
creepers and bamboos, up the sloping sides of the
sea-skirting hills, and when we reached the top, we
found it comparatively level, and instead of being
breast-high in bnishwood, were agreeably surprised
to see it knee-deep in flowers — peonies, monks-
hood, Hoteias, and Camj^anulas. In such a scene
the trees are large, and animal life in various forms
is astir. The pied woodpecker is scrutinising the
Avhcreal:>outs of grubs, and giving now and then
an inquiring tap, while the little striped ground-
squirrel plays at hide-and-seek among the branches
of fallen trees. The head of a startled deer may be
seen for an instant — a long brown nose, and two
mild inquiring eyes — and then a 2:>ortioij of his other
extremity, as he bounds away in the dim vistas of
the trees.

One thing that strikes us in this wild green
wilderness is the j)i'odigious number of those
charred and blackened trees that strew the ground
in every direction, though often so overgrown with

CAPTURE OF CARABI.

217

weeds tlicat one becomes acquainted with them in a
way generally more practical than pleasant, namely,
by finding himself on his face among the flowers,
his shins barked, and his temper mfiled. This
phenomenon is owing to the wandering shooting
and fishing parties of I\Ianchu Tartars, who always
fire the scrub and burn down the trees, to clear the
land and make it yield good pasturage. It is under
these burnt logs that Carabs ‘‘ most do congre-
gate ; ” and the labour required to dislodge and
capture them is really no joke. Two small bipeds,
enerscetic and determined, one at each end of an
immense blackened log, can, however, soon move
it by well directed efforts, assisted by sundry en-
couraging exclamations, as ‘‘There, she moves,”
“ Now then, doctor,” or “ Again, again, again ! ”
Thus the log is turned over, and my amiable and
worthy colleague, Sutherland, or my impetuous
messmate, Buckley, share with me possibly one or
two fine Carabi ; perhaps a neat black species with
grooved elytra, perhaps the gorgeous Carabus
smaragdinus in all his emerald glory, perhaps one

218

SAND-PIPERS.

equally as lai'ge, green and beautiful, with rows of
beads on his wing - covers, or a small, brown,
flattish species. Besides these you may bag a
few specimens of Helops and Helops' cousins-
german, and sometimes a stag-beetle will reward
our persevering exertions. But oli 1 what sweeps
we look as we return in triumph with our eapture !
Our nether habiliments, now no longer white, torn
and stained, our hands decidedly dirty paws,” and
our faces as smutty as the bottom of the family
tea-kettle !

* •«' * # #

After a severe gale I landed on a warm calm day
in the bight of the bay, and the contrast between
the clear sunshine and the smiling aspect of the
gi'cen shore, and the late raging sea and driving
spray, was vciy grateful. The sand-pipers were
(pietly busy probing for worms in the saturated,
spongy soil. One very pretty species, with broad
webs to his feet, was hovering about the surf,
chasing flies, and even swimming leisurely about
in the water. Cormorants were dressing their

AFTER A GALE.

‘219

coarse plumage on tlie rocks, the black-tailed gulls
were sporting over the now tranquil sea, and the
inland pond, where the water-fowl used to hide,
was twice its original size, so that the rushes no
longer concealed the timid widgeon ducks and teal.
The little streams were swollen into small torrents ;
the shingle was tossed up upon the grassy plain ;
the rushes were swept over and torn up by the
roots ; the outline of the beach even was altered,
and the force of the wind and the violence of the
sea were shown by the fact that thousands of large
mussels in bunches and clusters had been rn’enched
from their anchorage on the rocks, and were thrown
up high and dry upon the strand.

Crossing a narrow promontory, I descended the
cliffs on the other side, and reached the seaward
shore. I found myself in a small bay, — high,
jagged, limestone pinnacles, and huge vertical-
seamed cliffs, hedging me in and bounding the
view on either side, while in front was the open
treacherous main. The first objects I noticed vere
prodigious masses of tangle, or Laminaria, throvui

220

LAEGE OCTOPUS.

up in heaps, and hundreds of the large tunicated
curious Cryptochiton Stelleri, a sort of coat-of-mail
mollusk, detached by the gale from the off-lying
submerged rocks, and cast, like shipwrecked sailors,
on the shore. Dashed against the cliffs and ground
by rolling boulders, their internal valves were
mostly crushed, and here and there their mangled
bodies were found, having been carried to the tops
of rounded stones, and their bones picked clean
by sea birds. I walked solitary and musing, up
and down the bay, throwing mutilated Chitons
by dozens into the sea, and was rewarded now and
then by finding one tolerably perfect. Several
specimens of the large Octopus, or cuttlefish —
possibly the rather apocryphal 0. chinensis — had
been cast asliore, and I had thus an opj)ortunity
of securing the homy mandibles, the rudimentary
skuU, and some of the suckers from the arms. One
I measured was six feet from the tip of one arm to
the tip of the op 2 >osite arm. The large eyes of this
creature are covered with the skin, with the excep-
tion of a small round aperture ; the body is black.

IMPRESSIVE SCENE.

221

brown, and minutely granular. Large skate, rock
cod, and otlier fish wliicli bad shared the untimely
fate of the cuttles, were lying dead and bruised
among the stones, and fragments of tlie giant
Litbodes, or stone-crab, (like tbe monster I sent to
tbe Britisb Museum) strewed the narrow strips
of sand. It was an impressive scene, and remains
indelibly stamped upon my memory.

CHAPTER XVI.

Risiri — Effects of a Violent Gale — Rifunsiri Island— Deserted Fishing
Sheds — Todomosiri or Seal Island — Aniwa Bay — The Duck Family
in Full Feather— Ornithology of the Island — Abodes of the Ainos
— A Domestic Scene — Dress of the Meii-prFeminine Ornament —
The Hairy Kuriles.

On the 15tli Septemhcr, 1859, we arrived at
Risiri, situated on the south side of the western
entrance to La Perouse Strait. Tliis little island
was mistaken by La Perouse for a mountain on the
mainland of Yesso, and was named by him Pic de
Langle.” The entire island, with the exception of
a narrow strip of scoria land which 'fringes the
coast, is composed of a great conical volcanic peak,
which rises bold and rimo^ed to the heialit of
6000 feet above the level of the sea. Its summit
is white with snow, and in clear weather is visible
at a distance of 70 or 80 miles. It is about thirty
miles in circumference.

Near tlie spot where we landed, the side of the

EIFUNSIRI ISLAND.

223

cone lias been split open, and a wild lieadlong
torrent is now rushing with a mighty roar down
the side. It was only a few days after the great
gale, and in this gigantic fissure there were still
some fearful evidences of the fury of the storm.
Huo-e trees were torn from their foundations in the
rock, and tossed jcross the roaring torrent, the bed
of wdiich waas choked up with great irregular
masses of rock which had fallen from above.

In the calm sunshine, adewing this mighty chasm,
with the raging torrent, the torn-up trees, and the
stupendous rugged cliffs to^vering around, you are
led in imagination to picture to yourself the
scene of an earlier age, when, in some fearful con-
vulsion of nature, the vast mountain cone was
itself thrown up, vomiting forth flame and smoke.

Kifunsiri Island is situated to the north of Risiri,
from which it is separated by a strait about five
miles wide. It is eleven miles in a north and south
direction, by two and a half wide. It is very
ruo-o-ed. and rises about six hundred feet above the
level of the sea.

TODOMOSIEI.

2U

It is noticed by La Perouse under the name
of Cape Guibert, on the mainland of Yesso. On
the east side the island is sloping and fertile, but on
the west side it is bold and hiced with reefs and
sunken rocks.

Here w'c found very extensive but now deserted
fishing sheds for the curing of salmon. Ainos and
Japanese were living in neat little houses, with
patches of cultivated vegetables growing all around
them.

There is no place where one can have better
opportunities of seeing seals in the privacy of
domestic life, living unmolested in their island
home, than Todomosiri, in the Gulf of Tartary.
As, however, that little sjDot is a very long way off,
and very few are able to visit it, I will endeavour

i ^

to give some idea of the vild scenes in those out-
of-the-way places where whalers put in for water,
and take the opportunity of knocking on the head
a few hundred seals to complete their cargo.

The small barren island called Monneron by La
Perouse, and Todomosiri, or Seal ‘Island, by the

SEALS.

225

Japanese, is situated on the nortli side of the west
entrance to La Perouse Strait. It is a huge mass
of hare trachyte, a steep weather-stained rock rising
1500 feet abruptly from the sea, tfnd with some
detached rocks on its eastern side. As we ap-
proached it, we saw. a species of great brown gull,
greedy for fish bones and offal, hovering round the
base ■ a lonely cormorant, with o.utstretched neck,
diying her expanded wings on the salient angle of
a black* crag ; and a little hawk soaring high above
the summit. These are the only birds that frecpient
the island ; oysters, mussels, and limpets are the
only mollusks on its shore; and a carrion-beetle,
a large black Silpha, is the only insect met with.
There are, however, numerous seals. Many of
these were swimming and diving around the island,
their uncouth reddish brown heads showing now and
then above the surface of the water. Others were
baskino; in the sun, motionless on the broad smooth
rocks, the remnants of their fish dinners strewn
about them. The bones of some which had died
from old age or wounds were bleaching in the wind.

Q

t'ZG FAVOURITE RESORT OF SEALS.

and tlie carcases of others were seen decomposed
and torn by gulls and cojmorants. The dirt,
stench, and strange company, with the wild great
rocks towering all around, produced an impression
certainly novel, but not altogether agreeable.

We anchored pretty close under the lee of the
island, directly o]>posite a little white shingly cove,
with 2Latches of long coarse reedy grass in the back-
ground. This is a favourite resort of the seals, and
nowhere can their manners and customs be more
favourably studied. The old gray bulls rear the
fore part of their bodies and slowly sway them-
selves from side to side, meanwhile throwing u})
their great heads and bellowing continuously. The
cows and tlieir calves are con^reffated together in a
coterie by themselves, and rej>osing on the outlying
rocks, in attitudes ah}dhing but graceful, is an entire
seraglio of young females. The noise made by the
seals during the night is something fearful. One
might imagine it to be something like the croaking
of Erobdingnag bull-frogs, varied at intervals by
deep growls and sharp cries, loud snortings, dis-

ANIWA BAY.

sonant brayings, and other sounds of a more un-
earthly kind. Throe individuals fell victims to
the prowess of our sportsmen, and were towed on
board in triumph.

Aniwa Bay, in the south-east end of the island
of Saghaleen, is included between Cape Notoro and
Cape Siritoko. It is. a very fine ba}% fofty miles
deep. Midway .between the two capes there is a
depth of fifty-eight fathoms, the water gradually
becoming more shallow towards the shore.

On the 27 th September we weighed anchor, and
were drifted, from daylight to sunset, across the
broad bay. There was no wind, and a dense fog
covered the surface of the Avater ; but a south-west
current took us through the calm, in from eighteen
to twenty fathoms, to the north of Cape Notoro.
During the day we got one or two casts of the
dredge.

Some of the most successful and at the same time
agreeable dredging I ever had, Tvas furnished me in
this nearly unknown bay. I had a fine boat and
a good ser\dceable dredge, and every haul yielded

Q 2

228

CRABS.

good results. Many treasures of tlie sea were
brought to light. The crabs were always great
favourites of mine, although they are usually more
picturesque than beautiful. In their rugged shells
and hirsute coats they are frequently grotesque,
bizarre, and even absurd in their personal appear-
ance, the shuffling, staring, stalk-eyed, uncouth
beings 1 Some of them have legs upon their backs,
by means of which they retain shields formed of
sponges, under which they hide themselves. And
then their singular habits ! They sidle awkwardly
along ; they feign death ; they spitefully snap their
claws at you ; they defiantly advance; they timidly
retreat ; they hide themselves in old shells ; they
wimffle themselves into cracks and crannies of

oo

stones, and the labyrinthine recesses of the
corals.

And then we have the s]Donges alcynoid and
silicious, which often* crowd the dredge and cause
an embarrassment of riches, but as their sjhcula
are sharp and irritate the hands, they are usually
thrown overboard. Some of them, though wanting

PLEASURE OF THE DREDGER.

229

ill beauty of form, arc, however, very lovely in
colour.

The coral-makers are often numerous, and even
sometimes in wai'm latitudes too abundant, more
especially the smaller Caryophyllise and their
allies.

The lover of the gentle art feels a thrUl of joy
when a fine trout takes his fly, or a noble salmon
is fast to his line ; the sportsman is jubilant when
he brings down his snipe right and left ; the hunter
evinces a stern delight when, pierced by his unerring
ball, the king of beasts lies dead at his feet. So
likewise does the heart of the Dredger beat with
expectant pleasure when the loaded dredge is safely
landed on the vessel's deck.

He is, we wiU suppose, on unknown ground.
What will he find ? Human eye has never pene-
trated below the surface of these unfished waters ;
dredge or trawd have never yet revealed the
mysteries of life which lie hidden in these virgin
submarine abodes. What will he find ? Haply
some mystic, creature believed to have only lived

230

HONOUR TO THE DREDGE.

in by-gone ages, some living representative of an
extinct fauna !

The sailors term the dredge, the ‘‘ drudge ; ’’
and so, indeed, it is to them, for only the labour
is theirs, and no small amount of that, in hauling in
the implement of science ; the rare delight of view-
ing with appreciative eye the treasures when first

brought to light, is the naturalist’s. The pretty sea-

0

stars and the shells with vivid tints are the only
strangers in the dredge that claim any notice from
the lookers-on; all queer sober crabs, and all muddy
amorj)hous organisms in, for the time being, a quies-
cent state, are regarded with stolid indifierence or
with positive dislike. A living fish may give a
spasmodic flirt with its tail and excite a moment’s
interest, or should the claAv of a crab fasten on the
doctor’s finger, there is a gleam of fun, but the
transient smile dies away, and the unpopular imjfle-
ment, emptied of its contents, is pitched overboard
with something like an imprecation.

But Jionour to the dredge, say I, rough, unsightly,
coarse indeed to \dew, but a true and dear friend

OLD WATER-WORN SHELLS.

231

tg the seeker after the strange truths that lie likkleu
at the bottom of the sea.

Unless the mind is prepared by education, minute
beauties lie hid from the human eye, and the sailors,
who stand around me, gaze at the tub of sandy mud
and broken shells, yet all fail to see the delicate
lacclike beauty and the fragile elegance of form
assumed by the liinnerous organic creatures which
encrust the dull hat stones, and the odd and broken
pecten valves wdiich we have fished up with so
much labour from the bottom of the sea.

These old dead water-worn shells are seldom
altogether worthless, and should never be thrown
away without at least a cursory examination.
Sino-ular hermit-crabs often take possession of these
deserted houses ; rare Calyptrm often nestle snugly
in the apertures of the univalve kind, while very
frequently Serpulm with highly elaborate tubes
covered with charming sculpture coil themselves
about the battered ruin. On the flat valves of the
\)ivalves whole colonies of lovely fragile polyzoa
may encrust the surface, and little fairy, graceful,

23 ^

SAGHALEEK

living mosses form, like ivy concealing tire decaying
walls of an ancient ruin, networks and embroideries,
over tlieir corroded valves.

AVe bad been driven by the fury of the gale
through La Perouse Strait into the sea of Okhotsk,
and were again quietly at anchor in Aniwa Bay,
in Saghaleen, as the Aiuos, the aborigines of the
island, call it. It is also termed by the natives,

Isoka ; ” in fact, I find that geographers as well
as naturalists may sometimes be embarrassed by a
multiplicity of synonpns. The Japanese call the
island ‘‘ Oku-Yesso ; ” the Russians Sachalicn ; ” it
is named by old writers, Karafto ; ” and in ancient
maps it is Sahalien,” “ Ula-hata,” ‘‘ Augo-hata,”
“Island of the Black River,” and “Amur.” By
Siebold, followed by Keith Johnston, it is called
“ Tarakai,” but the name by which it is generally
known is “ Saghaleen,” derived from “ Sagarun,”
one of the names of the Amur River.

The general features of the island are very
similar to those of the opposite coast of Manchuria.
Primaty formations compose hills and rocks of

BIRDS OF THE ISLAND.

233

varying heiglits, and wild tracts of country arc
covered witli high rank grass, scrub, and masses of
fine trees. The most conspicuous trees are conifers,
pines, yews, ■and junipers. A kind of dogwood is
common, and I observe a beech, an oak, and a
species of Euonymus. The aster and pink, a small
"entian, the Flower of Yarrow and St. John’s- wort,
a species of Ribes, and the pretty white-flowered
Grass of Parnassus, are among the common plants.
A dark Marchantia covers the ground in damp
places, in which also a Lycopodium is conspicuous.
Of ferns I gathered a species of Pteris and a Poly-
stichum.

As we landed in a shallow bight of the splendid
bay, we observed the duck family in full feather.
The pretty golden-eye was swimming and diving
near the shore, or indulging in little playful flights
on and off the land ; elegant long-tailed ducks were
flying wildly and uttering loud cries ; whistling
widgeons were passing by in tTvos and threes ; and
conspicuous in the bustling noisy crowd Avere the
beautiful shieldrake and the solitary shoveller.

A SALUTE FOR BRUIX.

2U

These, with the malhu’ds and the teal, made the
shallow waters of the little sandy bays vocal with
their qiiackings and screamings, and it was at
once highly exciting and amusing to* watch their
loves and cjuarrels, their fiutterings, alarms, and
greedy gobblings. The little guillemot kept turn-
ing gaily about in the water, and the long necks
and pointed heads of the divers were seen at
intervals above the surface.

At the water s edge the golden plovers and the

*

sand-pipers came trooping along the mud-flats,
while the shrill whistle of the oystcrcatcher and
the cry of the curlew Averc hcai'd yi the distance.
Half buried in the shingly beach, I obseiwcd the
Imge skull of some hapless Avhale, stranded in the
shallows after having sought shelter in the bay.
Just before we landed, Ave j)crceived a black bear
trotting along the beach. Before he had climbed
the red clift' behind him, he Avas saluted AAntli a
rifle ball, Avhich caused him to turn his head and
cast an angiy glance upon the intruders on his
domain. We found, the scaAvecd scratched up by

FAMILY OF AINOS.

235

Bniin, who had been down foraging for shellfish,
dead crabs and mollusks being numerous on the
sand after the recent gale.

The captain and myself landed, and discovered
the abodes of the Ainos, in precisely the same
manner as did M. de Langle and his companions
in the time of La Perouse. “ They saw a litter of
blind puppies, the mother of which, barking in
the woods, led them to suppose that the owners
were not fiir off.” A half-scared woman, seeing us
approach, cndeaYoured to conceal herself in the tali
grass. She was, however, detected, and good-
humouredly hunted down, when she made for the
door of a little smoke-dried hovel. We followed
her, and pushing gently aside the sliding board
which served the purpose of a door, we entered
smiling, and lo ! the entire family was before us.
The countenance of the frightened damsel was
shrouded by a veil of loose black hair, and all were
silent and solemn, squatting on their hams around
the fire ; gipsy-fashion an iron cauldron, with its
seething mess of fish, hung suspended in the midst.

236

PEOPITIATIXG THE NATIVES.

No sign of welcome was made, no peace-offering
accepted. We therefore quietly withdrew, and
entered another and a lai’ger hut. Here we found
four men seated around the smoulderinef wood fire
solemnly smoking, while two young women were
clearing away the fish-bones and fragments that
remained after the recent meal. The interior of
the dingy abode was lined Avith matting, and on
a raised }:)latfonn on one side were an old woman
and some children. The captain and myself seated
ourselves among these strange pcojffe, and endea-
voured to Avin the hearts of the Avomen by pictures
from the “ Illustrated London NeAvg,” AAdiich they
accc2>ted timidly, and contemplated upside doA\m.
The absurd little broAvn monkey-like imps AA^erc
regaled Avith SAvect biscuits, Avhich they shyly
munched Avith silent gusto, and the stolid hairy
men Averc propitiated A\dth tobacco, Avliich they
sliced up and smoked instanter. We were amused
and pleased to note the skilful way in aaLIcIi one
little savage lighted his grandmothers pipe, and
AA’cre surprised to obseiwe that ancient dame, AAuth

MALE AND FEMALE COSTUME.

237

a black mane, crouching on all fours, like some
hideous sphinx, begin smoking the soothing weed
with apparently the most perfect appreciation of
its excellent quality.

The dress of the men of this remote region is
composed of coarse canvas or the skins of dogs
and seals. Their legs are protected by laced
buskins, and their feet by clumsy straw sandals.
'Eveiy man carries a knife in a Avooden sheath, and
a carved tobacco pouch. The lips of the Avomen
are tattooed of a pale black colour, and their coarse
straight hair is neither gathered up in a becoming
knot, nor cojifined by coquettish net or other
feminine device, but is simply parted doAvn the
middle, and very much resembles a huge black
mop. These unlovely’' Avomen have enormous
metal ear-rings depending from the lobes of their
ears, and necklaces of coloured beads adorn their
necks. They are clothed in silver-gray or spotted
seal-skins, and wear long boots of the same
material reaching above the knee. A black
leathern girdle, or “ cestus Veneris, encircles

23S

CHAEACTER OF THE AINOS.

tlieir waist, which is covered with brass ornaments,
and from which is invariably suspended the all-
useful knife. Oysters, mussels, and scallops,
mingled with the bones of salmon, seal, and
porpoise, are thiwvn in heaps around their houses,
showing their piscivorous propensities, and gi\dng
evidence of the debt these poor people owe to the
sea. The one idea of their existence seems to be
the capture of salmon. These noble fish they sell
to the Japanese, “reserving,” says La Ptirouse,
“ for themselves only the stench, which adheres to
their houses, furniture, clothes, and even the very
grass surrounding their villages. ”

As they come striding through the tall grass,
Avith their bows and spears, and their long hair
streaming in the wind, the Ainos give one the idea
of l:»eing formidable savages; but this ferocious
exterior suggests recollections of tlie ass in the
lion s skin, and only serA^es as a cloak to hide a
harmless, timid nature. On suddenly meeting a
party in the AA^oods the men crouch doAvui and the
Avomen and children “ hide their diminished heads.”

AINO LANGUAGE.

239

Their hirsute limbs, long tangled hair, and bushy
beards have earned for them the sobriquet of “hairy
Kuriles,” but on dose inspection the general ex-
pression of their faces is that of good nature
combined with stupidity, a view of their character
which is fully borne out by their large heads and
clumsy figures.

The Ainos are certainly not the original stock
from which the Japanese have sprung, as the two
races have little in common, cither physically or
morally. Their language even is different, being
similar to that spoken by the Kuriles. This is the
opinion of M. de Rosney, who observes, in his
“ Introduction to the Study of the Japanese
Language,” “ It Avas considered very probable that
the natives of the islands situated in the seas to
the north of Japan might speak an idiom approach-
ing to that of the Japanese, and consequently might
belong to the same linguistic fomily. The study of
the Aino language and of the different dialects used
in th^ island of Yesso and the Kmdles, obliges us to
consider this opinion as completely inadmissible.”

240

ABORIGINES OF FORMOSA.

In two respects I observed that these Aino tribes
resemble the Aborigines of Formosa^ who are called
by the Chinese Tai-lo-kok.’' Mi\ Swinhoe, who
saw a few of them, observes that their hair was
short and fringed on the forehead ; behind it hung
loose.” The second peculiarity is the circumstance
of their arrows having no feathered shaft, which
appears very strange, as birds arc abundant, and
feathered shafts are generally in vogue among all
who habitually use the bow. I do not know if
there is any linguistic affinity betAveen these two
tribes of Avild men. ]\L de Fosney says, “The
Formosan language, or that of Formosa or Tai-
AA^an, apj)ears itself to be a branch of the Oceanic
family.”

241

CHAPTER XVII.

Hakodacli— Vegetation— Pleasing Aspect of the Scenery— Appearance of
the To^ra- A Temple of Buddha— Visit to the Theatre -The
Audience and the Play — Vicinity of the To^\^l A Charming
Ketreat — Iiitereom-se with Nature.

On July the 15 th we arrived at Hakodadi, which
has the aspect of a poor and straggling -fishing
village, hut is very prettily situated at the foot of
a long bluff promontory which projects from the
southernmost corner of the island of Yesso. The
lower portions of the hills have some fine groves of
dark fir-trees, and the upper part is clothed with
brushwood. In some places paths have been
formed through the groves, and here and there a
little garden is cultivated: The summit is bare,
barren, brown, and rocky.

The vegetation of the island is very similar to
that of the opposite coast of Manchuria. ]\Iany of
the plants are of the same species. The homely

II

242

SCENERY ROUND HAKODADI.

dandelion is liere, with the familiar jagged leaves ;
and we gathered the spikes of Plantago media for
our canaries. The lily of the valley, in her modest
robes of white and green, is grovdng in profusion,
and on the sandy soil the gay Calystegia Soldanella
is flaunting in all her finery. The Chinese j)iDk
grows beside the shepherd's-jmrsc, and the Trollius
japonicus mingles her yellow flowers with the golden
cuj^s of Caltha palustris. The Japanese day-lily
vies vdth the Iris japonica. The bee-haunted
blooms of Stephanandra flexuosa are seen in the
swampy plains ; and in many parts the eye is
gladdened Avith roses, celandines, honeysuckles,
and anemones. The entire scenery, so lavishly
variegated with flowers, is A^ery pleasing to those
Avho have recently left the bari’en rounded hills of
Northern China, or the green sameness of the rice-
fields in the South.

On entering the toAAui the impression produced is
equally agreeable, the quiet and order which cA^ery-
Avhere prevail contrasting so remarkably A\dth the
noise, dirt, and confusion of Chinese cities. There is

ASPECT OF THE TOTO.

243

here no tumult in the streets ; but the craftsmen are
busy in their shops. Smiling damsels are drawing
water at the wells, and even the children are
demure and well behaved, no unruly urchins
throAving dirt at the stranger as he passes. The
A^ery dogs have a sort of canine politeness, and
disdain to snarl and bark at the Avanderer from
distant climes avIio has landed on their shore.
The streets are wide, Avell watered, and bounded by
roAvs of unpainted houses consisting of one story,
each offering on the roof the someAvhat remarkable
spectacle of a tub of Avater and a l3room, obviously
precautions in case of fire.

As I strolled alone about the toAAUi I came to the
great temple of Buddha, into the courts of Avhich I
entered. It Avas ornamented with numerous strange
devices, among Avhich were quaint dragons and huge
stone tortoises. WLile I was gazing abstractedly at
these ungainly figures, a burst of sunlight streaming
through a little windoAV in the roof covered the
colossal gilded idol Avith a golden glory, revealing
at the same time the figure of a female devotee

244 VISIT TO THE THEATRE.

prostrate on her face before the slirihe. The temple
gardens are in a solemn pine-wood, and the central
avenue is ornamented with grand solid monoliths
sacred to the dead. Not the least remarkable
objects are the ancient sculptured rock-masses
. covered with inscriptions. As I was examining
them, the solemn tones of the great bell ringing
out from a wooden tower in a corner of the sacred
grove filled me with a feeling of awe Avhich I
could easily account for.

Dm’ing our sojourn at Hakodadi we made up a
little party, and Avent to the theatre, AA^hich, on
entering, we found to be a large, dimly-lighted,
and barn-like house, Avith a roomy eleA’'ated stage,
but with no scenery or orchestra, in Avhich respect it
differed from some of the theatres at Yeddo and
Osaca, in Avhich there is an orchestra, the musicians
forming it playing on gongs suspended from a
frame-Avork, kettledrums, and a fcAv AAind instru-
ments similar to flageolets and fifes.

As Ave entered the building we paid at the door,
and were very politely escorted to a roAv of raised

INTEPaOR OF THE HOUSE.

245

seats at tlie side of tlie stage, wliich represented the
boxes. ^

. The body of the house was filled with a motley
throng of delighted spectators, sitting on benches
arranged as in the pit of our own play-houses. In
some of the theatres, as shewn by a representation
of one in my Japanese books, the pressure of the
crowd in the pit is regulated in a very ingenious
manner, the entire area being filled with a network
of barricades, each compartment occupied by from
four to six spectators. In this picture, moreover,
there are boxes and galleries, and the stage is filled
with numerous actors arrayed in gorgeous and
fantastic costumes.

The play was going on, and we knew not how
long it had been “ dragging its slow length along,”
because one play often lasts for several days, and
several plays go on in rotation. This allows the
spectator of any particular play opportunities for
leaving to partake of refreshment. Smoking went
on without intermission during the performance,
and innumerable little cups of saki were handed

246

THE PLAY.

round amid great general hilarity. As far as I
could understand what I saw on the stage, two
hired assassins or lonins entered, disguised, and stole
the child of some great Daimio. The mother
appeared just in time to witness the unexpected
abduction of her darling. Indignant and dis-
tracted, she was carried out in a demented
state, with dishevelled hair, by her distressed
young handmaidens. The two conspirators again
appeared with the unliappy child, whom they
barbarously murdered before om’ eyes, the blood
flowing freely from — a pig’s bladder, hid artfully
from view. The acting of the boy representing the
dying child was perfectly marvellous. He stretched
out his little limbs, moaned, gasped, became faint,
and Anally closed his eyes and died, producing as
painful a sensation as the deformed man in the
play of the Colleen Bawn.

At this juncture the bereaved mother again
appeared, looking anxiously around with wild eyes
and clasped hands. Perceiving her child lying
upon the ground, she leant over him, snatched him

247

COMEDY OF THE “ HAPPY DESPATCH.”

up in lier arms, and clasped him to her breast.
Her agony was admirably expressed; and the
better to enable the spectators to observe the play
of her features, a man crawled about in front of
the stage with a long pole, bearing at the end a
lio-ht with which he illumined the countenance of
the actress.

In the next act, which did not appear to have
any reference to the foregoing, we Avere astonished
to see the frightful ceremony of the Hara-Kiri
turned into ridicule. The chief actor in this
comedy of the by-no-means-to-be-laughed-at “ happy
despatch ” or honourable suicide, Avas a Avell-
dressed noble of portly bearing, Avith a rubi-
cund and jolly countenance. For some olFence, to
us unknoAvn, he had been ordered by the Tycoon
to kill himself. Surrounded by his sorrowing

V

friends and relatiA^es, and, as is usual, his dearest
friend ready Avith his SAVord to strike off his head,
he prepares for the fearful act ; but no sooner does
he feel the sharp edge of his sAVord than he shrinks
from the contemplation of the suicidal act, making

24S

CHARMING RETREAT.

comic grimaces, to tlie intense delight of the spec-
tators of both sexes, who scream with merriment,
and applaud him most vociferously.

The immediate vicinity of Hakodadi is very
pretty, and surhurhan villas, AAuth pretty gardens,
are very numerous. I came across one of these
charming retreats, where a party of elderly gentle-
men were amusing themselves vdth a bow and
arrow. They discharged their arrows in a kneeling
posture, and seemed highly delighted when they hit
the buirs-eye. They invited me in, and treated me
with the utmost politeness. I reposed on hand-
some mats, and with my entertainers was served
by pages who offered us little cups of tea and saki,
after which we smoked. As we were ignorant of
each other's language, we could only converse very
unsatisfactorily by signs. In the course of my
ramble I also came across another party. These
were out taking the air, and were also attended by
pages carrying refreshments, mats, and even camp-
stools. They accosted me with great courtesy,
examined my sweeping-net and collecting bottle.

BEGGING PEIESTS.

249

and pressed me to partake of a pipe, and a tiny
measure of pink scented saki. In fact, nothing
could exceed the courteous politeness and the
generous hospitality of the natives of this place.

On returning to the ship, I had the satisfaction
of seeing one of those interminable processions of
followers belonging to some neighbouring Kami or
Daimio. It was both a novel and imposing sight.
The horses were richly caparisoned, and covered
with sho’wy, embroidered trappings ; footmen bore
aloft numerous quaint emblems, and banners with
elaborate devices ; two-sworded men swaggered with
great state among the sho^vy throng, inflated, appa-
rently, with an overweening consciousness of their
own dignity and importance.

While rambling in the streets my attention was
particularly directed to two mysterious creatures
with their heads concealed in huge bee-hive like
helmets, who were playing dismal tunes on bamboo
flageolets. These I was told were begging priests,
who wander from door to door, doleful, dreary, and
blindfold, soliciting alms. I was much please'd

250

HAKODADI BAY.

with the groups of small shaven-pated children, in
long cotton gowns, whose acquaintance I soon
made, though they w^ere a little shy at first.
Tliey gathered wild flowers as I passed along,
and gleefully presented them to me, reminding
me of a similar custom I had observed in Wales.

After our return to Hakodadi, a few days of
monotonous routine on board a ship made me
desirous of renewing my acquaintance with the
shore. As the day was fine and tempting I took
my course along the wide sweeping curve round
Hakodadi Bay. Long strings of horses, carrying all
kinds of merchandise, passed me repeatedly. I
bought a wicker-basket for an itzebu,” and filled it
with skulls and shells before I ffot afloat aorain. I

O O

intended to cross the narrow sandy isthmus con-
necting the two bays, and follow the outline of the
outer one. I wandered far along the sandy beach,
my sootliing j)ipe inviting meditation. My eyes,
that ‘‘ to their earthy mother tended,” 'were intent
on chalcedony, carnelians, and nodules of marble,

TEMPTING DEPOSITS.

.251

of which there are galore, on the beached margent
of the sea."" I passed the sunken camp where
astute Nipong men daily practise rifle-shooting, and
near which there are tempting deposits that invite
inspection, rewarding the coleopterist sometimes with
a huge black shard-beetle, an amethystine species,
and a singular kind with a long reciuved frontal
horn, and where green chaffers abound on the
leaves of the young oaks. Vast mounts of white
sand, covered with undulations like the ripples of
the sea ; drift-hillocks, soft and dazzling like heaps
of snow ; long wavy ridges, half buiying the
fishermen’s huts, and banking up the boat-houses,
are seen on every side. Nature presents all her
beauties in rich profusion. The roses are large,
blushing, and fragrant, and the Sedums with their
whoiied succulent green leaves, invite the eye.
Eolhng down the gentle sand declivities, or crawling
painfully up the banks, under the diy, scattered
shards of oxen and horses, under heaps of dead
leaves, and by the snaky roots of brine-washed
plants, there nestle scores and scores of gray-brown.

252 .

OPATEUMS AND SAND.

rusty, browTi-black, rougb-coated indolent Opatrums,

or sand-beetles. Witbout much labour one may

$

gather them by bushels, and leave as many for bis
friends. With the exception of their colour, which
varies according to the amount of sand and dirt on
their bodies, they are all alike as two peas, and
tired, dusty, and ungrateful, one comes to the con-
clusion that all is — Opatrums and sand.

253

CHAPTEE XVIII.

Beautiful Tsu-Sima — Mussel Cove and Oyster Sound — The Adela Moth

PauloAvnia Impcrialis— Fossil Trees— Capture of aDamaster— Gigan-
tic Oysters — Island of Sado — Shooting Party — Taxus Fruit Diard s
Pheasant— Nisi Bama— Singular Spectacle— Sciuid Fisliing— Squid
Village — An Odd Fish.

4

Continuing our explorations, we next proceeded
to Tsii-Sima, whicli is cut up into deep sounds and
bays vutli a rocky bottom, and in these again are
numerous snug little coves and sheltered basins.
Two of these are set down in our chart as Mussel
Cove and Oyster Sound, names given by us on
account of the shell-fish they so liberally supply.
A boat-load of mussels gave every man in the
ship about two pounds of mussel-meat, the flesh
of each mussel averaging four ounces. The oysters,
however, are more attractive, and we determined to
make up a party in order to seek out and enjoy
these delectable “natives” in a free “al fresco”
style. ■ . ' . ,

254

JOURNEY OVERLAND.

The finest being on the opposite side of the
island, we had to make onr way to them overland.
We j^roceeded, accordingly, through groves of dark
clustering Ciyptomerias and tangled bushes of
yellow-fruited raspberries. Our course was partly
along the scooped-out rugged banks of an old
shallow, rocky watercoiuse, where the trout were
seen leaping after flies, and where ugly bull-headed
fish were dimly discerned deep dovni in clear dark
pools between the rounded boidders. Sometimes
we had to pick our way through patches of peas
and barley, and over fields of sweet potatoes,
gathering as we proceeded the sweet-scented flowers
of Syringa. We were struck vdth the vast numbers
of a species of sun-beetle which we perceived cling-
ing to the flowers of the Japanese privet, I stopped
to gaze, with admiration and delight, on an elegant
little moth called Adela, with striped golden wings
and long vibrating anteniUB ; I secured a bee-like,
liaiiy Trichius, or flower-beetle, buried deep in the
bosom of a purple thistle ; and numerous large
Elaters, or snap-beetles, flying in the sun . with

BOWERY CHASM.

255

bodies vertical and liorizontal wings, also fell
victims to mj predatory predilections. I dis-
covered some specimens of the Helivingia riisci-
folia, a singular little plant described by Siebold,
and I secured a few fronds of the glorious fern,
Anemia ternata, which flowers in the same manner
as the Osmund Eoyal.

Proceeding on our journey, we ascended the
gully, still follo^ving the course of the tumbling
burn which flowed along the bottom. Above and
around, clumps of light green oaks were mingled
with sombre-spreading fir-trees, with occasional
patches of elder, and here and there with soft,
billowy clusters of Cryptomeria japonica. Impend-
ing overhead were grey slate-stone rocks peeping
out from among the trees, while high aloft, con-
spicuous by her gorgeous head of crowded fox-glove
blossoms, towered the Paulownia Impcrialis — truly
a sylvan queen. Another curious pale broad nebula
‘ in the sea of green Avas caused by thousands of up-
turned bracts of Benthamia japonica.

As we emerged suddenly from our bowery chasm

256

GIGANTIC OYSTERS.

we encountered quite a different scene. In the
bight of a sheltered bay lay the brown thatched
houses of a village. The sea was clear and cahn,
and the sun shone bright on the wooded hills on the
opposite side of the Sound. Some slender sharp-
prowed boats, propelled by bare-headed islanders
clothed in blue, reminded us we were now among
the people of the ‘‘ Land of the Eising Sun.”

Next afternoon we took the gig and iDulled up
the intricate Sound until we were attracted by a
deep circular little bay, entirely surrounded by
towering trees, extending as far as the steep and
rocky shore. On the precipitous banks huge
fragments and stumps of what seemed to us fossil*
trees abounded, the softer rock in which they were
embedded having been washed away by the rain
and the tide.

As for the oysters, their number and size
astonished and delighted us. Some sjDecimens
were truly gigantic, the flesh of one alone actually’
weighing twelve ounces. We found them rather
deep down, adhering to the sides of rock-basins,

GREAT CAPTURE.

257

filled with the clearest water, pure as crystal. The
rocks were wced-grow’ii with feathery dulse and
broad-leaved tangle, and abounded in large-eared
sea-hares and dclicatc-tiiited sea-slugs.

I had the good fortune, on this occasion, to make
what I considered a great capture, that namely of
a Damaster ! But what is a Damaster, my readers
may impure. It is Fortunes beetle — an insect
much desired by^ entomologists. I was walking
alone at the. time, for all hands had gone on
board to dinner, along the shell-strewn strand of
Tabu-Sima, a charming little island not far from
the shores of Niphon. I was in a brown study,
smoking a little clay pipe, and thinking chiefiy of
.the contempt in which I should be held if some of
my “ very respectable friends saw me in my disre-
putable “ rig,’' for my neck was bare, my coat was
an old blue serge, and as for my hat it was brown
felt, and I must say ‘‘ a shocking bad one.” How-
ever, the sun was bright, the clear blue rippling sea
was calm, the little island was new and verdurous,
and I smoked serenely. On a sudden my abstract

s

■ 258

THE DAMASTER.

downward gaze encountered a grotesque Coleo-
qiteron in a suit of black, stalking slowly and
deliberately among .tlie drift-wood at my feet,
stepping cautiously and delicately over the “ spilli-
can twigs, like a Catholic priest in a crowded
thoroughfare. At once I knew my coleopterous
acquaintance to be Damaster, so I carefully
lifted my unresisting sable friend from his native
soil, and after giving him a good long stare, I
deposited him in a bottle. From his name and
appearance I judged him to be cousin to Flaps,
and I turned over the rock-weed for his brothers
and other relations, but though Helops was there,
Damaster was not. Puzzled, but not baffled, I
conceived his tastes might be mme particular, so I
ascended the steep green sides of the island and
cast about for rotten trees, nor was I long in dis-
covering a very promising stump, nicely decayed,
and full of holes enough to captivate the heart of
any beetle. Being, however, fatigued with my
scansorial efforts, I sat down before the citadel of
the Damaster, and assisted my deliberations by

ISLAND OF SADO.

259

smoking a solemn pipe ! Having propitiated
Nicotiana and matured my plan of operations, 1
commenced the work of destruction, when lo !
amoncc the vegetable debris I descried a long
dusky leg, anon two more, and then, buried among
the ruins, the struggling Damaster.

Nearly opposite Niegata, in Niphon, one of the
new ports of Japan very shortly to be opened to
Europeans, 'there is a very beautiful island with a
rocky iron-bound coast certainly, but the interior
of which abounds in green trees and wooded hills,
vdiich are separated by deep gullies, gradually ex-
panding in their turn into rich alluvial plains
watered by rivulets, and parcelled off into pro-
ductive padi-fields. The name of this little island
is Sado, and here it was that I formed one of a
party which was bent on the shooting of pheasants.

At first our way was by the sea-shore, over great
level plains of rock, which seemed as if they had
once boiled and been covered with bubbles of stone,
which, having burst, had left circular hollows with
raised edges. Here we found plenty of chitons, a

260

SHOOTING PARTY.

cuttle or so, whelks in abundance, a few queer crabs,
but — as 3^et no pheasants. Anon we wandered by
the weed-grown margin of a shallow stream, which
sparkled, eddied, and went on its way rejoicing,
forming in its course numerous little waterfalls.
By its side ran, and flirted up and down, the tricksy
water-ouzel, often makiug a dash into the small
shallow rapids. Here also were the mild slender
wagtails, yellow, pied, and gray. Ver^ impudent
rooks were perched on every tree, and the nois}^ jays
were flirting violently among the branches of the
oaks. But — we saw no pheasants. We followed
the upward course of the mountain-stream, and were
gradually shut in by the sides of a Yeij charming
valley. Bright yellow Persimons hung, like the
golden fruit of the Hesperides, on leafless trees ;
dark spreading yews harboured within their cool
shade snug little cottages, and on every side, to the
eye’s delight, were tapering soft elegant Cr^q^to-
merias, mingled with broad-leaved sycamores, and
the magnificent foliage of oaks and chestnuts.

Desirous of procuring a few acorns we stooped to

diard's pheasant.

261

gatlier some under tlie trees, and our occupation
being observed, a good-natured Japanese ran into
his house and brought out handfuls of a nut, very
similar in appearance to that which we were pick-
ing up, but which we recognised as the kernel of a
species of Taxus growing around. These we were
requested to eat, and amid much merriment at our
expense, in making so absurd a mistake, our acorns
were treated with pantomimic abhorrence and
disgust. The Taxus fruit had been boiled in salt
and water and was pretty tolerable, though rather
rough to the palate. But the pheasants ? Well,
leaving me to “ moon ” about as usual, my impul-
sive messmate, {lieutenant Warren, a sportsman,
successful as well as enthusiastic, struck across the
country, and very soon saw ten or eleven pheasants
feeding together in the open spaces of the scrub.
They were first recognised by the peculiar short
crow common to the pheasant family, and were by
no means shy, never having seen sportsmen before.
Their favourite haunt seemed to be in the shrubs
and high grass on the rising land between the cul-

262

NTSI-BAMA.

tivated fields. These pheasants are the rare and
lovely Phasianus versicolor, or Diard’s pheasant,
found only in Japan. “It would be difficult,”
exclaimed my friend, elated as was natural, “ to
describe my sensations when first startled by the
metallic splendour of the plumage of this king of
pheasants. But,” continued he, “ if the sportsman
wishes to ‘make a bag,’ he must-be prepared for a
hard day’s work, for the ground is very hilly and
irregular.”

Three brace and a half fell this day to the
excellent shooting of Lieutenant Warren. At a*
dinner given on board Diard’s pheasant fonned a
conspicuous fcatoe, and the flesh was pronounced
quite equal to that of liis English congener.

On the 19th November we arrived late in the
evening off Nisi-Bama, in the Oki Islands, a very
charming little group not far from the shores of
Niphon. As we neared the anchorage the lights
on the water were so numerous and brilliant, and
all moving about in such an exceedingly ignis
fatuus kind of manner that a boat was sent -with

SQUID FISHING.

263

the interpreter to ascertain the cause of such an
unusual spectacle. On his return Oudah ” re-
ported that the maritime will-o’-the-wisps belonged
to fishing-boat^ hundreds of which, he said, were
out looking for “Ika-Surame,” an appellation which,
after some circumlocution, and many elaborate
attempts at explanation, we ascertained meant
simply “ squids.” . The lights were produced by
birch-bark, kindled in small kinds of gratings with
long wooden handles, machines known among sea-
faring men by the name of “devils.” The flame of
the fires is very clear and vivid, and the “ devils ”
are held over the boats to attract the squids. These,
I find, are a species of Omniastrephes, a sort of sea-
cuttle, which is nocturnal in its habits, and which
swims very rapidly near the surface in immense
shoals. They are taken by a method which is
known among fishermen as “jigging.” The “jig”
is made of iron, and consists of a long shank sur-
mounted by a circlet of small recurved hooks.
These cuttles are famous articles of diet both witli
the Japanese and Chinese, and are carefully dried

264

SQUID VILLAGE.

for the market, where they are sold in vast
quantities. They are also extensively used as
bait in fishing for bonito and other large fish of
tlie mackerel tribe, which abound ^long the coasts.
Tlie squid is strung through its entire length, the
club of one of the long tentacular arms artfully
covering and concealing the hook.

Near Hakodadi there is a small fishing village

o o

exclusively devoted to the capture and curing of
these nutritious Cephalopods. Many hundreds of
thousands may here be daily seen diying in the
open air, suspended in regular rows on lines, which
are raised on poles about six feet from the ground,
all very nicely cleaned and kept flat by means of
bamboo stretchers. The open spaces are filled with
these squid-laden lines, and before all the houses
in the village squids everywhere form a novel
kind of screen. The Japanese name of the 2 >lace is
Shai-Sawabi, but by us it Avas always called “ Squid
AMlage.”

On the 20th, I landed with the captain at the
village of Nisi-Bama. The A^alleys between the

VILLAGE OP NISI-BAMA.

265

steep wooded hills were very curiously cultivated
in terraces, causing them to resemble so many
verdant amphitheatres. We passed through a
wicket, ascendent a steep path through a grove of
fine trees, and found it led to the trunk of a
gigantic bastard-banyan or Ficus nitida, evidently
a sacred tree, for the base was covered with paper
effigies and other votive offerings, and a little gaudy
joss was discovered squatting in a niche. On re-
gaining the village we found the people very civil,
though rather in awe of the foreigners, possibly the
first of our race they had ever seen. Their houses
were neatly built, Avith tiled roofs, and Avith com-
fortable sheds for horses, coavs, and pigs. Dried
squids abounded, and from the projecting rafters
of a gable-end I observed a grotesque-looking dried
shark’s head, evidently the trophy of adventurous
fishermen. Entering the abode so decorated, I en-
countered an aged crone poundiug the daily rice.
She was inclined to be in a rage at my intrusion,
but displaying in my manner as much of the
“ suaviter in modo ” as possible, I effected the

266

GROTESQUE-LOOKING SHARk's HEAD.

purchase of the architectural ornament for the
small sum of one itzehu.

This ‘^squaline caput is sufficiently bizarre to
merit observation. It has been inspected by many
a seafaring man, from an admiral to a j)owder-
monkey, and its physiognomy, though sufficiently
striking, is unknown even to a class usually well-
acquainted with the tribe in question. The head,
which is narrow and somewhat compressed, is
covered with a smooth black skin ; the snout
is long, triangular, and j^ointed, not depressed, and
projects considerably over the mouth, which is open
with a wide gajie ; the gums are exposed and
painted red. The eye is large and round, and
unprovided with a nictitating membrane or eyelid.
The nostrils are oblique, ear-like openings placed at
the lower part of the muzzle, midway between its
tip and the eye. The teeth are arranged in three
series, the outer row erect, the middle semi-erect,
and the inner decumbent ; they are similar in each
jaw, and are long, pointed, curved cusps, with their
lateral edges shaiq) and simple.

267

CHAPTER XIX.

Nagasaki — The Scenery — Vegetation — Insect Life — The Woodcutter
— The Harbour — Desima and Pappenberg — State Barge and
Pleasure Boats— Scenes in the Streets— Mendicant Priest — A
Bonze — Strolling Acrobats— Cemeteries — Ceremonies in Honour of
the Dead — The Temples — Dog-Fancier’s Shop — Gigantic Salaman-
ders — Fish Festival— A Kamble in Kiusiu.

We next proceeded to tlie south of the island of
Kiusiu, and landed at Nagasaki. The first time I
went ashore I ascended the hill on the right of the
harbour, through fields of ground-nuts and bearded
wheat. The grassy banks, which form the boundaries
of the land, are planted at intervals with elegant
wax trees, Avhich are often garlanded Avith cissus-
vines and ivy. Among the loose stones glides the
slender blue-tailed lizard; and the abundant red
fruit of a species of Potentilla offers a sorry substi-
tute for the straAvberiy. My road lay in a simken
rocky path, over-arched Avith trees, like some of the
North Devon lanes. Among the dead leaves on the

268

HILLS OF TSU-SIMA.

ground, I captured specimens of a very fine carabus,
and as I emerged once more from this shady path
into the merry sunshine, I saw apoderus, hispa, and
cassida alighting on the sunlit leaves. At this
season of the year there are but few flov'crs, but
you will notice everywhere the white clustering
blossoms of Syringa, the white dog-rose, and the
welcome fragrant honeysuckle.

When I reached the pine-clad summit of the hill
all appeared silent and solemn. The only bird I saw
was a large kite, which hovered above the trees,
and the only sound I heard was the continuous
cawing of the rooks and the loud grating noise of
the cicada. The hills of Tsu-Sima are composed of
slate-stone, and in that island, among the loose
moss-grown stones among the trees, I discovered
several kinds of air-breathing mollusks ; but here
the basis of the hills is granite, and I cannot find a
single species of operculate land shell. Among the
foliage of the trees I noticed Hadra orientalis, a
handsome banded snail, and Hadra peliomj)hala. In
the dense brushwood on earthy banks, I found

THE WOOD-CUTTER.

269

Satsmna japonica, and the common Acusta Sieboldi.
With the exception of some dark-winged butterflies,
insect life seemed very scarce. The flat stones even,
on being turned, revealed nothing but wood-lice,
centipedes, and cymatise. A small yelping cur
detected me in the act of transporting some bundles
of brushwood in search of snails, and anon, his owner,
a broad-faced, smiling Caliban, appeared. The honest
wood-cutter was even more astonished at my volun-
tary labour than liis ‘‘friend on all fours,” but
muttering “moosi,"' which means “creeping things,”
he rattled a bit of chain, saying interrogatively,
“Ma?” which being interpreted, signifies, “Have
you seen my j)ony pass this way ? ” I shook my
head, and pointing to my collecting-bottle, repeated
“Esha.” On this hint — for Esha means “Doctor”
— I was treated with profound resj)cct, and the old
peasant, suddenly vanishing into the bush, speedily
returned with both hands filled with be<5tles. By
the use of tlmee words only, we had succeeded in
understanding each other.

Froni my elevated position iji the fii’-clearing I

M

270

STREETS OF NAGASAKI.

now looked down upon tlie land-locked harbour. To
the right is Desima, and to the left is Pappcnberg,
doum whose steep sides it is said fifteen thousand
Christians were once precipitated. All around
green wooded hills, checkered with fields of yellow
wheat, rise up from the water’s edge. The dark
smooth surface of the harbour Avas dotted with
stranse-fashioned craft. The monotonous cries of
the boatmen, ‘‘Ilsh-shia, ush-sliia,” faintly reached
my ear, as, bending to their powerful sculls, these
semi-nude athletes urged their sharp-proAved boats
SAviftly through the Avater. Parties of women sang
gaily as they crossed in boats from shore to shore ;
fishing-boats AA^ere casting their nets, AA^hile clean
unpainted trading junks s^^read their AAdiite sails to
the faA’'Ouring breeze ; and the dark banner-bearing
barge of the Jajianese governor, proj)elled by many
oars, and looking like a galley of old Eome, moved
Avith sloAv and solemn state to the sound of music.

The long Avide streets of Nagasaki are sometimes
very gay, especially on festive occasions, or in the
evening A\dien the labours of the day are over, and

MOTLEY THRONG.

271

the genial time has arrived when, as our Interpreter
Tatish would say, they ^‘talk nonsense and drink
saki.” At such periods, a motley throng is seen.
I may notice some of the natives that came under
my own observation, trooping along the narrow
side paths.

First, there was a party of three who met in the
middle of the road, and their three broad circular
hats, seen from a distance, appeared to take the
form of a gigantic shamrock, as they bowed their
heads together. Next, a tipsy samourai, or govern-
ment official, swaggered past me, with the straight
hilts of his swords projecting half-a-foot in front of
his protuberant abdomen. He was followed by a
timid mother leading a little child, their gentle
aspect forming quite a contrast to the braggadocio
air of the drunken yakonin. A row of half-naked
coolies trotted rapidly along in single file, bending
under hea’cy baskets, w^hich were borne at the ends
of the bamboos across their shoulders. In the middle
of the street, a lady in a norimon was carried at a
swinging even pace by two stalwart bearers. Three

272

UP TO mischie'f.

more norimons came after, followed by tliat more
plebeian conveyance, a cango. In tlie centre of tbe
road, was a lean small borse bolding down bis bead,
and led by a decrepit old man; wbile a fatter
borse was surmounted by a stoutisb man in a
conical bat, wbo sat percbcd up on a mountain of
mercbandise.

On tbe side path we nearly ran against a vendor
of sweetmeats, ringing a little bell like our muffin-
man, and praising tbe quality of bis wares with tbe
voice of a stentor ; a man with a sbiny black paper
bat, wbo followed bim, was, I learned on inquiry, a
priest of tbe Kami sect; wbile two gentlemen,
wboin I observed on tbe other side of tbe street, in
tbeir petticoat trowsers or nakamas, were about to
pay a visit of ceremony. Tbeir attention, I saw, was
attracted by two laugbing girls, with vermilion lips
and faces white with paint, wbo were undoubtedly
“up to misebief.” An odd-looking figure, wbo
came stalking along, striking bis stick, which was
furnished with jangling metal rings, upon tbe pave-
ment, was pointed, out to me as a mendicant priest ;

STROLLING ACROBATS.

273

and a man with a bare smooth shaven head, I was
informed, was a bonze of the Buddhist order. I was
much amused by the appearance of a little boy,
who came carelessly along, having positively nothing
on him but a very large saucer-shaped yellow hat ;
and a coolie, who was groaning and perspiring
under the weight of two enormous boxes, was
scarcely more amply clad. A few friends, who had
met in the middle of the road, were gently bending,
rubbinsc their knees and sucking in their breath to
express their mutual high regard. But who are
these that come careering down the road, with a
noisy din of gongs, and fifes, and drums ? It is a
troupe of strolling acrobats, who will shortly be
seen lying on their backs, and balancing ladders on
the soles of their feet : causing their paper butter-
liies to flirt and flutter in the air ; or spinning tops
which, with wonderful dexterity, ai’e made to run
along the edge of a sword.

There then passed us, in rapid succession, a sedate
but needy-looking man with a huge bundle of
sticks slung across his back ; a barber with Ins

274

PEOPLE m THE STEEETS.

shaving apj^aratus; a coolie staggering under the
weight of two earthenware pots ; a young man
with a lantern at the end of a long stick ; a police-
man with a. checkered' robe ; a pretty woman with
a little dog in her arms ; and a blind beggar chant-
ing dolorously. In front of the bath-houses were
merry groups of both sexes, some placidly smoking,
others making love, a few telling stories, and the
rest staring vacantly about them. A cross-grained
• old man looked very vicious while chopping off the
head of a very ugly fish, the wickedness of his
aspect contrasting with the mild manner of a de-
cidedly stout party seated behind his little store of
fruit, and sheltered' from the heat l)y a gigantic
paper umbrella. A kindly-looking father showed
that he was quite a domestic man l)y the manner in
which he carried his little daughter on his head;
while a traA^eller beside him, with his nose tied up,
stepped along more independently with a goodly
pack upon his back. A well-dressed beau showed
how anxious he was to preserve the delicacy of his
complexion by carefully sliading his face with his

CEMETERIES.

275

outspread fan ; and an old man, witli spectacles on
nose, who, accompanied by two timid shrinking
girls, was carrying his umbrella over his shoulder
like a sword, gave him a look of cynical contempt
as he passed him.

I was much struck by the very cheerful and
even gay aspect of the cemeteries of this peculiar
people. These cities of the dead are usually
situated near the living city, in most picturesque
localities, and are planted with clusters of ca-
mellia and hibiscus trees. We entered one, and
strolled up the noble avenue of fir trees, tall,
sombre, and funereal. The great gong in the belfry
of the temple had just been sounded, exciting in
our minds a feeling of awe, combined with a senti-
ment of respect for the sacred ‘‘ Dead.” All around
us were placed enormous blocks of unhewn granite,
arranged with an eye to the picturesque, and
havinof one side smoothed for the name of the de-
parted. We noticed many four-sided monuments,
and one with a four-sided conical apex. There
were also tablets with semicircular tops, like our

276

TEMPLES.

ordinary tombstones, and even bere and there some
elaborately sculptured cenotaphs.

I used to fancy the cemetery at Kensal Green
picturesque and pretty, but the old graveyard at
Nagasaki is far -more attractive. The ground is
hilly, and portions .have been formed out of the
solid rock. The family graves are decked with
living flowers, the use of immortelles appearing to
Ije unknown. At certain times, we are told, the
tombs are lighted up with particoloured lanterns, in
honour of the dead, and the relatives hold a mys-
terious kind of carousal with the spirits of the
departed ; at other times, groups of young people
spend hours kneeling before the decorated shrines of
their relatives, or wander cheerfully among the
flower-strewn avenues.

The temples dedicated to the worship of their
deities, are vast and dingy l3uildings abounding in
hideous idols. These vary in their form and fashion
according to the nature and character of the beings
they are supposed to represent. The majority, how-
ever, are either immense gilt or bronze images of

dog-fancier's shop.

277

Buddha, or • grotesque and ugly monsters with
dragons’ heads. The images of the gods of rain
and tempest are frightful, and nothing can be more
monstrous than some of the masks with goggle
eyes and round, bloated cheeks.

The educated classes of the Japanese only smile
at the extravagances of the pppular religion, looking
with contempt on these horrid effigies and mystical
imaginary beings. The more intelligent of them
prefer the religion of the Kami, or Happy Spirits, a
quaint, fantastic form of worship, somewhat similar,
I imagine, to the mythology of the Greeks and
Komans. Many of them are followers of Con-
fucius, and acknowledge one Great and Supreme
Being.

One of the most curious sights in Nagasaki is the
dog-fancier’s shop, where the far-famed little poodles
are sold. You enter a large apartment, where, under
the care of a young and handsome woman, are
specimens of the canine species of all ages, from
the blind struggling puppy to the dog of elderly
and respectable appearance. The dog-fancier’s wife.

278

SONG-BIRDS.

who had a sick poodle in her arms, said to me, " I
have no children, and so I tend and care for these
small dogs,” for they are all of the same diminu-
tive breed. It is a singular fact, but they thrive
best upon hard dried salmon, which is carefully
scraped for them by their kind mistress. There
were more than forty dogs in her keeping, and she
informed me that last year she lost thii’ty at one
time from influenza.

The song birds in the shop are also very pretty,
as are the nuthatches, which are kept in very tall
cages, vith an upright stick in the middle, at the
top of which is a cross-piece with a notch, in which
the bird places the nut or berry, which he hews
with his pick-like bill till he gets at the kernel.
Instead of the more yielding fruit of the yew,
which is the usual food of the nuthatch of Japan,
at one time I substituted hard hazel-nuts. As the
bird was unable to crack these, he placed them one
by one in his water-glass, evidently with the notion
that they would in time become softer — an interest-
ing proof of intelligence on the part of these birds. .

SALAMANDEES.

279

Here also I saw several flue specimens of Sieboldia
maxima, the gigantic salamander of Japan. They
are kept in large dark tanks, and are as ugly rep-
tiles as can he well imagined ; black sluggish
creatures with warty skins, flat heads, no eyes
worth mentioning, blunt noses, and short sprawling
legs. They are said to come from the mountain
streams of Kiusiu, but in reality they are from the
neighbourhood of Osaca in Niphoii. The only •
kind of salamander I saw in the shallow streams
which are numerous about Nagasaki was the little
dingy triton, with an orange-mottled belly, very
similar to the Avater-newt of Europe.

I bought a couple of Sieboldias for the captain,
and had them conveyed on board, Avith a plentiful
supply of small live eels for their maintenance
during their voyage to England. One of these
creatures died in the transit, and liis bones are noAv
in my museum ; the other, I beheve, is still to be
seen, the “ admired of all admirers,” in the reptile-
room of the Zoological Gardens. When they had
consumed all the eels, small pieces of raAv meat

280

SIMONOSEKI.

were given them, and really, in their purblind way,
they seemed to relish them as much as they did
their slippery living prey.

One of the sailors, when exhibiting them to his
gaping companions, incautiously handled the big
one, which, obviously indignant, turned suddenly,
and severely lacerated his hand. His comrades,
believing the wound to be dangerous, for they
imagine these reptiles to be very venomous, showed
great sympathy for him in his calamit}", but beyond
the temporary inconvenience, no serious conse-
quence resulted.

Simonoseki is charmingly situated at the entrance
of the Inland Sea. It consists of a sin ole street

O

nearly two miles long, stretched at the base of the
steep, low, thickly-wooded hills which extend
along the shore of this portion of Niphon. As we
approached the town, sounds of wiki music greeted
the ear, and as we anchored within a stone’s throw
of the houses, a novel and attractive scene was
presented to our view. The quaint and cleanly
houses were gaily decorated with flags and many-

MOSOSAKI.

281

coloured streamers, mingled eveiy^vliere with fan-
tastic devices of odd-shaped fishes, great-eyed, long-
armed cuttles, and sea-monsters of “ questionable
shape/' Drums and trumpets were sounding, and
the hum of a thousand voices added to the exciting
din. The pleased and pleasure-loving Japanese, full
of curiosity, swarmed to see the stranger-ship ; the
town was in a ferment. The windows Avere filled
with women's heads, the quays and landing-j)laccs
croAvded AAuth gaping men and boys. Our arrival,
hoAvever, Avas not the cause for so much jubilation.
— It AA^as a Fish-festival.

The next day Ave changed our anchorage, and
anchored on the opposite side of the straits, off the
little village of Mosi • or Mososaki. I landed, and
ascending a rocky AAunding path, came to a charm-
ing little temple, Avith a queer pointed high-peaked
roof, Avhere I could look out upon the Avaters of the
SuAvo-Nada, the largest division of the Inland Sea,
being nearly sixty miles in length.

As I continued my ramble in this pretty corner
of Kiusiu, I found many handsome snails, and

282 ODD VARIETIES OF PLAifTS AND ANIMALS.

some smaller but more singular molluscous crea-
tures. I arrived in a short time at the shores of the
Seto-Uchi itself, and had an opportunity of examin-
ing the vast, shallow, square enclosures where salt
is made first by evaporation, and afterwards by
boiling down in huge copper pans. I was also
greatly interested in an establishment for forging
iron, and especially for the manufiicture of nails.

Encountering an old man and a child, I soon
made their acquaintance, and was invited by them
to enter a picturesque cottage, where I had a smoke
and some tea with grandpapa, who showed me, with
much inide, his chrysanthemums and bantams, the
former of gigantic luoportions, and the latter perfect
little beauties. The old man pointed to the tails of
the small strutting cocks, which curled quite over
their heads, and were considered the acme of ]Dcrfec-
tion. The Japanese are famous hands at producing
odd varieties of plants and animals. They will
present you, at will, with a pigeon all white, with a
black head and wings, or all black with a white head
and wings. A cockscomb shall, with them, be straight

ANCIENT JOSS-HOUSE.

283

or curly, a clirysaiitlieimim be dwarfed or gigantic,
a tree be reduced to a tiny shrub. As to the foliage
of plants, we all know the spotted and variegated
leaves brought home by Veitch and Fortune.

On emerging uj)ou the sandy shore again, my
attention was attracted by a dozen women beating-
out and winnowing their stores of wheat, which
they did in a very ingenious way. Noticing huge
flights of steps under wide-spread umbrageous fir
and other trees, I ascended them, and came to an
ancient joss-house, where were idols more hideous
than the most horrid forms which the mind, con-
ceives in nightmare.

284

CHAPTER XX.

The Seto-Uchi, or Inland Sea — Tomo— Gay Spectacle— Tlie Temple — Tea-
house in the Suburb — Priest and Dancing Gilds — 'Women of Japan
— The Kiphon Belle at Home — Female Costume— Strange Fashions
— House of a 'VYealthy Man of Tomo — Saki Distilleries — Yokohama
— Curiosit}'-Shops — Beautiful Carvings— Japanese Contrasts — The
Narruto or Mniirlpool.

AVhen vrc entered the Seto-Uclii — ^tlie Inland Sea,
the great water highway of Japan — by the Kino
Cliannel, we were immediately struck by the signs of
native industr}", the number of trading junks, the
fertile apj^earance of the islands, and their numerous
population. These indications of commercial pros-
perity and activity are observed throughout the
whole length of the Sea, which is two hundred
and forty miles. We noted the tree-crowned summit
of Kasaneyama, and the white quartz cliffs of Tsa-
kahara, the palace of the Dainiio Hida on the lianks
of the river which waters the plain about Waka-
yama and the low, wooded coast of Noma-Sima.

TOMO. I

On entering tlie Idsnma-Nada, we found it free
from islands or rocks of any kind. The Seto-Uchi,
however, becomes very narrow at Akasi Strait, ‘

being there only two miles wide. As the stranger-
ship passed quietly along, within a stone^s tlirow of ■

their houses, a blue-robed bare-headed multitude ^

gazed with eager eyes upon us.

In the Bingo-Nada, the high rugged peak of
Dotensan^s sacred mountain was before us ; and the
fine cone of Odutsi, nine hundred feet liigh, was
passed. Numerous islands with rounded peaks, most
of them cultivated to their very summits, with pictu-
rescpie villages in sheltered bays, and temples and tea-
houses perched on wooded knolls, formed, as the ship
glided by, a panorama of as much interest as beauty.

On the north shore lies Tomo, a large town
famous for its saki distilleries. Escorted by Araki,
our courteous Japanese, the captain and myself
landed at a stone pier in the little harbour. It
was a period of festival, and all Tomo was alive
and out of doors. Gay pennons fluttered from the
windows, and wild music was heard in the streets.

286

JAPANESE FESTIVAL.

Laughter-loving women and smiling graceful girls,
clad in scanty narrow skirts, and with huge bows
tied behind, were out enjoying themselves. Merry
dark-eyed children were in an ecstasy of delight.
Strutting, swaggering Yakomins, sword-bearing
■gentlemen clad in quiet silks, tradesmen in
checkered cotton gowns, and serfs bedizened
with the badges of their masters, were trooping
pleasantly along. Lounging in the doorways were
idle matrons ; less attractive than the younger
daughters of Japan, they were laughing behind
their hands to conceal their blackened teeth. Groups
of elderly men sat serenely smoking, or sipping saki
in their houses. 'Itinerant vendors of cakes and
sweetmeats went about proclaiming the merits of
their wares ; and brawny coolies, nearly nude, and
bending beneath the weight of bales and boxes,
were pushing along in the crowd. In the middle of
the road was a gentleman uncomfortably doulJcd
up in a sedan or ‘'norimon,” carried by bearers.
These are some of the sights and sounds we noticed
in our stroll along the streets. A singular feature,

O O'

THE captain’s MISTAKE.

287

we remarked, consisted in huge drums placed at
intervals on gailj-decorated stands. As the many-
headed ” passed along, some lively member would
perform an impromptu solo on this noisy instru-
ment, to the accompaniment of a laughing chorus.

Following in the wake of the throng, we at length
arrived at the entrance of a clean broad avenue,
flanked by splendid trees, and with handsome
granite candelabra-like lamp-posts between them.
On an elevated basement at the end we perceived
a temple, with a noble flight of steps leading to the
open portals. A lean old man, in a quaint gold cap,
was squatting on a platform by the door. To him
the captain spoke very politely, for he imagined him
to be the high priest, and the old fellow, who was
remarkably lively, seemed to take much interest in
the captain’s sword and spyglass. A roar of laughter
from the upturned faces of the close-j)acked crowd
below excited our attention, and Araki explained
that the old man with the gilded cap was but the
beater of the wooden drum which summoned the
faithful citizens of Tomo to their prayers.

PLEASANT SUBURB.

2SS

^Ye entered the temple, and as we stood before
the altar we missed the mild, benevolent form of
Buddha, Avhich we were accustomed to see gilded
and of colossal size. We beheld instead, however,
placed aloft, a monstrous horrid mask with goggle-
eyes, a iDcndulous red nose, and a hideous grinning
mouth. On either side of this mysterious ogre-like
face were female masks, with regular and pleasing
features. Araki, a j>roud man, and a sceptic, threw
down a few coins and strode out, apparently some-
what ashamed of his fellow-countrpnen s absurd
idolatry.

After leaving the sacred fane we proceeded to a
pleasant suburb, where we rested in a famous tea-
house, perched on a rocky angle which commands
a splendid view of the calm blue waters of the
Bingo-Nada. Like all these favourite places of
resort, this tea-house was a light and elegant
structure, Avith a terrace in front, and charming
gardens all around. A priest AAns kind enough to
invite us into his dwelling, Avherc vn Avere indulged
Avith the sight of tAVO dancing girls, famous for their

fW-f

WOMEN OF JAPAN. . 289

beauty and alluring manners. Tlic description by
Captain Saris, of tlie women of Japan, written in
1613, accurately- describes tliese Eastern Aspasias as
they are at the present day. “ They were attired in
gownes of silke, clapt the one sMrt over the other,
and so girt to them ; bare-legged, only a paire of
half buskins bound with silke about their instep ;
their haire very blacke, and very long, tyed up in a
knot upoii*the crowne in a comely manner, their
heads nowhere shaven as the men's Avere. They
AA^ere Avell-faced, handed and footed, cleare skind
and Avhite, but Avanting colour, Avhich they amend
by arte. Of stature Ioaa^, but very fat, very cour-
teous in behaAuour, not ignorant of the respect to be
given unto persons according to their fashion."

It is, I am aAvare, treading on delicate ground, to
enter the boudoir and Avatch the toilet of a lady, and
still more dangerous to criticise the fashion, colour,
and material of her dress ; but as no “ Le Follet" is
published in Yeddo, to AAdiich I can refer my fair
readers, I must even risk the imputation of a curiosity
which cost an “ Actaeon " of other days his life !

u

290

A LADY S BOUDOIR.

In the seclusion of her scrupulously clean but
simply furnished apartment sits the Niphon belle,
in that attitude peculiar to all classes in Japan, her
legs bent under her, and the palms of her hands
restino: on her knees. One of her attendants kneels
behind her, and combs her long hair from her fore-
head, and arranges it in hea\y coils upon the top of
her head. Great pins of glass, ivory, or tortoise-
shell are now placed at oblique angles, Jhd perhaps
a bit of scarlet ribbon is added, giving her head a
peculiarly piquant, quaint, and picturesque cha-
racter. The tortoiseshell and golden combs, the
enormous chignons worn by European ladies, and
the long stiletto hair-pins still affected by the
Eoman contadina, are not a whit more extravagant
than are the ornaments of a Japanese lady’s coiffure.
The wives of the Mikado are, I believe, the only
ladies in Japan who wear their hair hanging loose
about their shoulders.

The pattern of our maiden’s silken robes is
neat, usually finely checkered, and the colours arc
quiet and unexceptionable. Her ample outer gar-

UNBECOMING CUSTOM.

291

ment has loose hanging sleeves, and her under robe
is a very narrow skirt. These two vestments are
fastened vdth a wide sash of most voluminous pro-
portions, which is tied behind in a huge knot. In
the tea-gardens this is a very becoming feature in
the pretty waitresses, who, bending on one knee,
offer you tea and sweetmeats on a lacquered tray.
Unlike the ladies of the Flowery Land, our damsel of
the Land of the Rising Sun wears no spacious pan-
taloons, and her feet are bare. Her face is made
beautiful by cosmetics, her complexion is whitened
with pearl-powder prepared from the dried fruit of
the Marvel of Peru, and her lips are painted with a
rich vermilion dye.

The ugly fashion of staining the teeth black, and
plucking out the hair of the eyebrows, is not fol-
lowed by our charming Moosmi,” for she remains
at present “ in maiden meditation fancy free.” This
unbecoming custom, I quite agree with Mr. Oli-
phant, appears to be a heartless device of jealous
husbands, who wish to keep entirely to themselves
a useful household manager to mind their domestic

292

LADY ON HORSEBACK.

concerns, while they themselves pay visits to the
tea-houses, and are waited on by smiling Hebes ! I
constantly saw among the upturned female faces
smiling at the foreigner, many married women,
with their hands before their mouths, endeavouring
to conceal what they evidently regard as a dis-
figurement of their features.

A Japanese lady in walking attire forms a rather
pretty picture, as, shading her eyes wit? her open
fan, she slides along in her grass-woven sandals, her
hair tastefully arranged, and her loose-sleeved jacket
partially covering her narrow skirt. I think she
contrasts not unfavourably with an English girl in
bright-coloured walking dress, and head of por-
tentous size, stepping mincingly along ^vith the
celebrated “ Grecian bend ! ”

But when I observe a lady of Niphon on horse-
back, taking the air, bestriding a high conical
wooden saddle, holding on to it in front with both
her hands, and her knees uj) to her elbows, while a
barelegged groom leads her sorry nag, I think she
presents a figure at once inelegant and absurd ; con-

HOSPITABLE ENTERTAINERS.

293

trasting very unfavourably witli a bonny English
maiden in a dark riding-habit, which sets off her
slender supple form as she sits with easy grace her
beautiful Arab mare !

A wealthy man of Tomo, our guide through the
toAvn, now invited us to his house. The rooms
were bare of furniture, but exquisitely neat and
clean. The floors were covered \vith soft thick mats,
and the o^cn windows looked out into trim little
gardens abounding in rockwork, ponds of gold-fish,
dwarf trees of fantastic shapes, and some mag-
nificent Japanese lilies in full bloom. His wife
entered with grapes and slices of melon, and his
daughter followed with pipes and tobacco, ^which
she offered on her knee to the unlooked-for visitors.
As Araki gave them our history, both matron and
maid regarded us with looks of lively interest, and,
judging from their ‘‘nods and becks, and wreathed
smiles,” were well pleased with our appearance.

On bidding farewell to our kind entertainers, we
wended our way through streets and lanes lined
with silent orderly spectators, -to the famous saki

294

YOKOHAMA.

distilleries, where we passed along dark narrow
galleries, full of huge wooden casks and puncheons,
and piled with flasks, jars, and queer-shaped vessels
filled with the favourite spirit.

It was a source of great amusement to me during
our stay at Yokohama, where w^e remained a short
time, to rummage among the art treasures in the
bazaars and curiosity shops. The love of the
grotesque, so strongly developed among flie people,
is shown in many ways, and among others in those
small wood and ivory carvings called buttons,'^
which the better classes wear attached to their
tobacco-pouches. These exquisite carvings in ivory

are difficult to obtain, although inferior imitations

• °

are not uncommon.

In the course of my researches I became ac-
quainted with an old curiosity dealer, a melancholy,
ugly being, by the way, between whom and myself
a close friendship was cemented, in consequence of
our common appreciation of these quaint little
“ curios.” He would draw in his breath, and heave
a sigh of profound admiration as he produced from

EXQUISITE CARVINGS.

295

some mysterious corner of his shop a figure more
elaborately carved or more humorous than usual,
which he placed in my hand with a confident air,
as if to say ‘‘ Is it not a choice one 1 ”

I eifher purchased from himself, or became
through his intervention the fortunate possessor
of many specimens of these charming gems of
art, which are not always procurable for “boos.”
Some of them are mythical monsters, with obese
forms, and loose rolling balls in their capacious
mouths ; or contorted writhing dragons, with scaly
trunks and heads, which could have been suggested
only by the remembrance of some hideous dream.
Natural objects, however, are very carefully copied.
I have a group of toadstools with the stem and
gills exactly as in nature, and a melon with the
netted roughness peculiar to the rind of that fruit
most skilfully imitated. A snake which, with head
erect, eyes glistening, and tongue protruding, has
eaten his way through the melon, is carved with
minute accuracy, even to the rendering of the small
curved teeth. I have a very neat figure of a

296

CAMEOS.

]\Iusina,* a pretty fox-like animal witli a busliy tail,
of wliicli the Japanese make great pets. She is re-
presented going off to market, standing on her hind
legs, with an aquatic plant to protect her head,
while she holds another smaller leaf as a fan. On
her arm is slung a gourd to serve as a water-bottle,
should she be thirsty on^ her way. The creature's
fur in this ivoiy^ gem is wonderfully rendered, and
the veins of the leaves are sculptured with the most
minute accurac)". The eyes are black 'and sparkling,
and a quaint business-like air is given to the serious
face. Although at first sight top-hea\y, the artist
has so accurately balanced his work, that the little
animal stands readily upon its hind feet.

I likewise discovered in my explorations, cameos
of grinning faces, carved in low relief on the sides
of walnuts, and a charming little bit of carving in
solid tortoiseshell, obtained from the nails of the
great elephant-footed tortoise. I became possessed
also of a female figure balancing a huge vnter-pot
on her head, and a warrior with a terrible countc-

* See Vignette.

SKILFUL WORKMANSHIP.

297

nance, who, having overcome his enemy, is placing
liis foot upon the head of his prostrate foe. He,
poor wretch, clenching his fist with rage, and with
distorted features, glares wdth open mouth and wide
starmg eyes from beneath the shelter of his hat.

In these clever carvings, scenes from daily life are
reproduced with marvellous fidelity and effect. In
one of my specimens, two small boys are playing
at “ chequers.” One fixes his eyes with a look of
anxiety on his vis-d-vis, who is about to throw for
first move. The other, confident of success, assumes
a w^ell-plcased air, though he is obliged to use both
hands to hold up the dice box, which is nearly as
big as his liead. On examining the interior of the
dice box, a single die is seen loose within, having
all the dots from ace to seize marked wdth minute
accuracy.

Another figure of veiy^ skilful w'orkmanship, one
of my choicest examples, represents an old man
wdth a beaming countenance, digging wdth a
mattock into a heap of money, w'hich the sharp
nose of his dog has discovered for him. His eager

298

PEOPLE OF JAPAN.

attitude is very expressively rendered, and the
carving of his dress is as perfect as it can be — the
texture and pattern of his garments being accurately
copied from the living model, even to the grass
sandals on his feet, and the few decayed teeth in
the old man’s open mouth. On examining the
under surface of the money heap, the different coins
of Japan — boo, tempo, cash, and cobang — each
with its own distinctive marks, are found to be
faithfully engraved. The finish of this figure is
exquisite.

The impression made on our minds by the people
of Japan is, that they are a very paradoxical race.
They bow down before and worship the most
hideous idols, grovelling in the lowest form of
Paganism, or they rise to the contemplation of the
sublimest truths of philosophy. They have two
kino's and two laiiffuatxes. Their great men wear
two swords. They live in picturesque and beautiful
islands, cultivated to the highest perfection. They
plant noble avenues of cedars, and build mag*
nificent temples. As a rule, they arc simple and

A PARADOXICAL RACE.

299

chivalrous in their lives, and their reverence for the
dead is great and enduring. They delight in flower-
gardens, and their love of natural scenery amounts
almost to a passion.

Instead of shoeing their horses with iron, they
protect theii- hoofs with sandals of straw. They do
not engrave their crests upon their plate, or stamp
them on their envelopes, but bear them about on
the back of their outer garment. The keys of their
locks are turned in a direction opposite to ours.
Their courtiers, instead of donning knee-breeches
like our own, trail the lengthened legs of their
trowsers more than a yard upon the ground.
Their nobles, when disgraced, rip themselves up,
and their delinquent priests do penance with their
heads concealed in huge bee-hive hats. They wrap
up their noses in the cold season, and walk bare-
headed in the streets. They tattoo their nude
bodies, and almost dispense with clothing, or deck
themselves out in most prejiosterous habiliments.
Such is their ingenuity, that they can dwarf trees
and variegate leaves, can cause gold-fish to flomish

300

WHIRLPOOL OF JAPAN.

a double tail, can j>roduce at demand pigeons of
any pattern of jDlnmage and poodles with liardly
any noses, worth mentioning, rear bantams of the
smallest dimensions, and cultivate the tallest of
chrysanthemums.

But the time had come for our departure, and
having weighed anchor, we entered the Suwo-Nada,
which is the largest division of the Inland Sea,
l^eing nearly sixty miles in length. On the one
hand, our eyes rested with pleasure on the lovely
shores of Niphon; and on the other, on the fine
island of Yasima, which was spread out l)efore us.

We all of us had heard of Scylla and Charybdis,
and of that terrible ]Maelstrdm on the coast of
Norway ; and some of us, perhaps, had read, with
feelings 'of teiror, Edgar Poe’s fearful narrative of
the ship gradually engulplied in the vortex of the
Great Whirlpool ; but here, immediately before us,
is the famous “Naruto,” or Whirlpool of Japan.
It is not, however, strictly fv whirlpool, “ Naruto ”
meaning “ Gate of -the Sea, which makes a great
noise.” It is rather a narrow and winding channel,

SHOOTING THE KAPIDS.

301

bounded by dangerous rocks, and through which
the waters of the Inland Sea rush with a turbulent
impetuosity.

My friend Captain Bullock resolved to shoot the
rapids, and take soundings, in the steam tender of
the ‘"Actmon.” With knowledge and science, her
captain piloted her in safety through the dangerous
passage. The little craft boldly plunged into the
seething waters, the foaming waves rolling onwards,
and striving to dash her on the rocks ; but the
“Dove,” undaunted, pursued her steady course, and
dropped anchor in the peaceful waters beyond the
reefs of Koura. During the passage some junks
were seen to be turned round and round many
times by the whirls and eddies Avhere the converg-
ing currents met.

Trading or other craft are never supposed to
venture this way, the families of the rash owners of
junks, dashed to pieces on these rocks, being ex-
cluded from the benefit of the relief afforded by the
Japanese Government to the sufferers in ordinary
cases of shipwreck.

802

CHAPTEE XXL

Simidsu Excursionists — Quack-Doctors — Natural Curiosities — Habits of
the Musina — Ursa Mnjor and Minor— Women hauling the Seine —
Prolific Life — Village Store — Mode of catching Whales— Japanese
Mammals — Madrepores and Mollusca — Shell-Sand — Amki — Sun-
and-Moon Shell.

When the Act seen” dropped anchor in Simidsu,
or the “ Harbour of Sweet Waters,” there was great
excitement in the village up the river from Avhich
the harbour derives its poetic name. The advent of
the vessel was held to be a legitimate occasion for
the pleasure-seeking inhabitants to proclaim a gene-
ral holiday. The bay soon swarmed with pic-nic
parties, and the ship was surrounded by a flotilla of
boats. The noise and confusion along-side was a
babel of distraction. As usual, the women were
wildly excited, their chatterings mingling shrilly
with the vociferations of the men. Mothers held
aloft their infants to obtain a better view. Gaping

QUACK-DOCTORS.

303

wouder was depicted in tlie upturned faces in tlie
boats, and, on all sides, loud clickings of tlie tongue
and mute signs of approval were every instant
interchanged.

A motley group soon tlironged the decks, all
dressed in their best, the women and girls liare-
footed, but with their hair neatly arranged. The
men and boys often bore on their wrists tame fal-
cons, and little nuthatches in tall wicker-cages.
Quack-doctors were especially numerous and im-
portant ; and the 0-Esha, or chief doctor of the
ship, found favour in their eyes. A fellow-feeling
makes us wondrous kind."'^

One ancient empiric paused abruptly before me,
feeling his pulse, lolling out his tongue, and com-
placently patting his stomach. Tliat pantomime
having been duly enacted, he next proceeded with
great gravity to swallow one of his own pills, and
went away with a well-satisfied smile at his own
performance.

The people of Japan are fond of natural curiosi-
ties, although the mythic element is not so strongly

804

CHINESE NAMES OF ANIMALS.

developed in them on this point as it is with the
Chinese. Their monsters are equally as quaint, but
are never so astounding in their proportions, or
so grotesque in their hideousness, as the terrible
dragons, unicorns, and phoenixes you see painted
on the inside of the screens facing the Yahmuns,
or public buildings, of China.

Our visitors brought off for sale the knotty wens
of trees; snake-gourds as tall as a man, and no
thicker than a cucumber ; strange plants, with mot-
tled leaves; cowrie shells; branches of coral; and
even toads and rats, in small square cages, were
offered to us by those who were anxious to dispose
of them.

In the names which the Chinese give to animals,
the poetic nature of their language, and their
fondness for simile, are strongly indicated. Among
them the cat is a ‘‘ household fox the bat becomes
the “ heavenly rat ;” the porpoise is the “river pig ”
while, strange to say,* the scaly ant-eater is the
“hill-carp,” and is said to be the “only fish that
has legs.” Some of the Japanese names of animals

MEDICAL VISITORS.

305

arCj however, very appropriate ; anakuma, for exam-
ple, or hole-bear,” is the appellation by which the
badger is known.

Some of the objects brought on board by the
cjuack-doctors were sufficiently curious, and sug-
gested reminiscences of the earlier ages of medicine
in England. One offered leeches in an earthen jar ;
another disj)layed a bloated toad ; a thii*d paraded
frogs, skinned, dried, and spitted on bamboo skewers;
and a fourth was the fortunate possessor of a bundle
of dried vipers, with the jaws extended to show their
poison-fangs. Others had snails packed up in grass,
or bamboo-boxes crammed with slugs, heads of the
singidar fish Fistularia, or flute-mouth, the velvet-
covered budding horns of deer, dried camomile
flowers, and fern-powder.

One of the prettiest things I procured from the
good people of Simidsu was a Musina, or female
Tanuki, the head of which was revealed to me softly
nestling on the breast of a young boy. I purchased
her, and she soon became a great pet, not only of
^ her master, but of all on board. I brought her

X

306

MUSINA, OR FEMALE TANUKI.

with me as far as the Cape, when, to my disappoint-
ment, she became sick and died.

The Japanese arc very fond of this little animal.
Old Koempfer describes it in a few words : “ Tannki
is a very singular kind of an animal, of a brownish
dark colour, with a snout not unlike a fox’s snout,
and pretty small.” My j)layful little hlusina was
very much like a racoon. , When she was hungiy
and in quest of food, she ran like a fox, tail on end,
sniffing the ground with lier inquisitive sharp nose.
Like Eeynard, alas! she was also too fond of poultry,
and got into sad disgrace by killing the captain’s
bantams and pheasants. She was partial also to raw
eggs, whicli she cleverly held ])etween her fore-feet ;
cracking them across, and, as the two halves fell
apart, licking out the contents with her tongue.
IMusina at times was very petulant. She became
enraged at the sound of the drum beating to quar-
ters, and would shake with fury any piece of cloth
of a red colour. At Simidsu, the people profess to
believe that the Tanuki lives only in the crater of
their beloved mountain, the peerless Fusiyama.

JAPANESE BEARS.

307

I procured likewise a very fierce little creature,
allied in nature and habits to the weasels, but very
like a tiny otter in appearance.' The Japanese call it
Itatsi. It is a species of Vison, one of the genera of
jMustelidee. In Keempfer’s history it is very briefly
alluded to. “The Itutz,’^ he says, “is a small
animal, of a reddish colour.” JVlien angry it makes
a hissing sound, like a l^rood of young owls or
hawks. The Japanese encourage the Itatsi to take
up its abode in the roofs of their houses, in order to
keep in check the rats and other vermin, upon
which it principall}^ subsists. The one I had kiUed
a rat, wdth which I presented it, in an instant.

Our two Japanese bears were a source of much
amusement to the sailors. They roamed at large
about the ship, and were very docile, but their
motto seemed to be “ Noli me tangere for when
teased they would bite their tormentor severely.
They had been christened Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor, the former being the favouiite. Major was
more wilful and mischievous than Minor, and more
frequently in hot water. He was not averse to

308 PRANKS OF URSA MAJOR.

poultiy, and would boldly abstract fowls from a
Japanese covered basket left for a moment in liis
way. He once escaped witli one screaming bird in
each paw, was forthwith pursued, and, not without
an indignant j)rotest, was made to relinquish his
prey. On another occasion, seizing his opportunity,
he clawed a favourite bantam out of his coop, and
immediately consumed it on the spot. He would
walk down the accommodation-ladder, enter a canoe
alongside, and seize an albicore nearly as big as him-
self. He once jumped overboard, and swam to some
native boats lying off the ship, into one of which he
climbed, to the consternation of the old women in
possession, who held up boards behind which they
hid themselves in terror. He was brought on board
and tied up for his bad behaviour, not, however,
without remonstrances and cries in a jDoevish voice,
like that of a cross boy exclaiming, “ Don't !
don't!” He was partial to sweets, and vdien the
mouth of a jam-pot with which he was presented
proved too small for him, he seized hold of the cox-
swain's hand, and made of it a cat's paw to abstract

TAKANO-SIMA AND OKINO-SIMA. 309

the tempting contents. He had rum and sugar
given him by a monkey of a boy as mischievous
as himself. He partook of it, and soon became very
intoxicated, staggering about the deck, and finally
falling to the ground insensible. With careful treat-
ment, however, he was restored, even after his life
had been despaired of. , On one occasion he dis-
appeared. He was supposed to have fallen over-
board, or to have swum ashore. His description
was made out, and a reward offered for his recovery
by the police. Next day he was found fast asleep
ill the hammock-netting, and resumed his mis-
chievous pranks, in jierfect ignorance of the trouble
and anxiety he had caused his friends.

On the cast coast of Niphon, and not far from
Tatiyama, are two small islets, named Takano-Sima
and Okino-Sima. We were prohibited from ram-
bling on the mainland, for it belonged to a Daimio
unfriendly to foreigners; but the two little islets
were placed at our disposal for the purpose of
exercise and recreation during our stay at this
anchorage. Here, undisturbed, I was enabled to

310

VEGETATION.

watch the habits of many molluscous creatures, for
my observatories were exposed to the rolling waves
of the Pacific, and had not been disturbed, except
by fishermen, for ages. The narrow beach was
fringed by a low brushwood, in which the white,
umbellate flowers of Crinum asiaticum were con-
spicuous, while the interior of the islets was occupied
by huge fig-trees (Ficus nitida), which, with firs and
larches, form dark shady labyrinths, the chosen
abode of Helix simodse and a little Bulimulus.
The proliferous fronds of the handsome fern Wood-
wardia japonica sjjrang in profusion from the humid
soil, and the trunks of the Coniform were green with
Drymoglossum, a curious fern with narrow fertile
fronds growing erect from slender, twisted stems.
Here, in the calm, warm days, came fishennen to haul
the seine, and boatloads of women followed from the
mainland to assist their husbands. The song and
merry laughter of the women hauling at the rope,
and the noise and splashing of the men in the
water, mingled with the loud cawing of the rooks in
the great fig-trees, produced on the mind a novel

TAGO, 311

ami pleasing impression. As tlie seine came slowly
in, we used to notice, besides goodly fisli of tbe
larger sort, cow-lislies and sea-scorpions, squids,
cuttles, file-fishes, and long-clawed fiat-legged swim-
mins: crabs. Crawling; on the rocks between tide
marks, where the boulders are covered with soft
green seaweed, or hiding in tlie fissures and furrows,
were numbers of Peroiiia Tongana, looking like
shell-less Chitons and veritable Pulmonifers living
in the sea !

Not far from Tatiyama is a snug little harbour
called Tago, in which arc numerous small coves,
where one may escape from the prying inquisitive-
ness of the people and collect specimens in peace.
In all these small bays, sandstone rocks, clothed
with stunted oaks and dwarf firs, rise abruptly
from the shingle of the beach, and a few miles
inland are green hills which tower up all around.
Acrainst the water-worn rocks on the beach arc loose
rounded stones, heaped up by the efforts of the ever
restless tide. The yellow flowers of Hemerocallis,
the red spotted turbans of the tiger-lily, a trailing

WHALE IK THE OFFIKG.

sn

Clematis, and a pretty Line Scilla, gi’ow on the
shingly soil, while Pitcairnia straminea. Lycopodium
lineare, Pteris cretica, and a Dendrobiiim fill up the
fissures of the cliffs. Above iiigli-watcr mark, but
exposed to the saline influence of the tide, adhering
to the under surface of the stones, crawling in damp
shady corners, or nestling in the weed-grown cran-
nies, are thousands of Ecalia, small cyclostomatous
snails. These are not the only creatures here
observed, however, for Lygiae, or Sea-Woodlice, run
out in great excitement, Armidillidia roll them-
selves up in balls, crickets hop nimbly aside, and
sinuous Geophili, harmless centipedes, hastily seek
the shelter of the surrounding stones;

The day after our arrival there was great excite-
ment in the village. All Kino-O-Sima was out of
doors. A Avhale was reported in the offing. There
was much noise and shouting. A dozen boats were
quickl}' launched, and started off* in wild pursuit
Long, gaily-painted, • sharp-prowed boats, propelled
by four powerful sculls, each worked by two men
standing, darted through the water. A smart hand

VILLAGE.

313

was placed in tlie bows in charge of the harpoon ;
while others, eager but still, squatted on the huge
black nets coiled up in the boat. The boats soon
approached, and quickly surrounded the whale,
which they wounded repeatedly with their lances and
harpoons ; and, when he Avas exhausted from loss of
blood, enclosed him in their strong nets, and hauled
him ashore.

The village abreast of the anchorage at Kino-0-
Sima is pleasantly situated, and the houses are Avell
arranged in rows, ^yith neat green lanes between,
formed of bamboo and other plants. Conspicuous
among the houses is the general store, Avhere, as in
England, you constantly see little children and
women dropping in for the purchase of a penny-
worth (or tempo-worth) of treacle, oil, saki, dried
fish, string, sugar, or rice.

In the front of the village is a large square space
,open to the sea. Here, on the beach, are fishing-
boats hauled up, long dark nets spread out to dry,
noisy rooks feeding on scraps of ofiiil, and pic-
turesque groups of fishers and women.

314

PURCHASE OF SPECIMENS.

Anchored off the entrance of the Kino channel,
I was very fortunate in obtaining specimens. Time
was when a European naturalist, visiting the shores
of the great island named Zij)angu, as Marco Polo
calls it, would have had but a sorry chance of learn-
ing anything about the zoology of Japan ; but now,
with the imperial flag (a red ball on a white ground)
at the fore, and Araki, an oflicer of high rank, on
intimate and famihar terms with all on board, we
found the people very friendly in their intercourse.
Amused and puzzled at my passion for skulls, Araki
gave orders to the hunters to provide specimens for
me, and in a day or two an antlered deer was
brought alongside, and soon became mine by right
of purchase. Next followed two flue does, then a
badger and a tanuki. A flue old yellow-haired sow
also became my property for a consideration of ten
“ boos,” but she illustrated the saying about “ a pig
in a poke,” for though, as she lay on her side on the^
quarter-deck, she looked a magnificent specimen,
alas ! she had been speared through the mouth, and
her skull Avas found on examination to be shattered.

TRUSSED MONKEY.

315

and consequently worthless, and her lean carcase
was quite unfit for food.

]\Iany of the animals brought down for sale were
cunningly done up in straw. A living wild-cat
thus secured could do no mischief, though she
hashed fire from her glaring, angry eyes. In
fashion similar a little dead monkey was brought to
me, its brown face only visible. It resembled one
of those Egyptian mummy-cases in the British
Museum, with the face painted on the outside.
Two men were seen, on one occasion, trotting along
the shore abreast of the ship, bearing something on
a pole between them, very much resembling a flayed
child. Frightful suspicions of cannibalism flitted
across my mind. They stopped, deposited their
burden on the beach, and placidly awaited the
arrival of our party. A near inspection showed me
that the anthropoid creature was a large monkey
divested of its skin — trussed in point of fact, and
ready for the spit. It was kindly offered by our
Japanese Nimrods to supply our gastronomic neces-
sities ; for they imagined that all the wild-cats, pigs,

816

. HUGE OLD MADEEPORES.

and badgers which we j)urchased or received were
boiled in the coppers, and served out as savoury
rations to the hungry sailors. Great, therefore, was
their astonishment, when friend Bedwell neatly
decapitated the quadivimane, leaving the body neg-
lected on the beach, and bearing off the head, care-
fully wrapped in a newspa 2 :>er, for the doctor's delec-
tation.

There is one tribe of moUusca which usually
escaj^es the notice of collectors, on account of their
living buried in madrepore-masses and corals. As
an instance of the hicility with which good sj^eci-
mcns of these burrowing mollusks may be obtained,
I will relate my 0-Sinia exj)erience.

A shallow bay indents the promontory on the
mainland on the opj^osite side, which, on investiga-
tion, offers nothing so tempting as the numbers of
huge old madrepores which strew the beach. They
are large and heavy, and how to transport them to
a convenient spot was a question that required some
consideration. Collinson solved the j>roblem, how-
ever, by selecting a number of small Nipong

MOLLUSKS.

317

children, whose curiosity prompted them to follow
us; and allotting a madrepore to each they bore
them cheerfully, but in amazement, to the oi>posite
shore, and were rewarded with small coin. One
pretty little girl was detected, after the arrival of
the others, fraudulently appropriating a madrepore,
which she pretended she had brought ah the way,
and therefore claimed the usual award. On being
found out she ran away, discomfited and ashamed,
amid the jeers and laughter of her boy-companions.

When the madrepores were brought on board, I
had them broken up with a hammer, when the
shells feU out, and were carefully collected ; in this
manner I obtained specimens of Jouannetia globosa,
Parapholas quadrizonalis, and Leptoconchus, red-
brown boring Lithophagi, gaping Gastrochmnm,
besides parasitic Arks and other nestling bivalves.

The vast rolling waves of the Pacific washed the
strand, where children and aged crones were seen
gathering bits of driftwood and charcoal, and where
village curs were equally intent on cast-up offal and
the remains of shipwrecked cuttles. Might I not

318

ocean’s waifs and strays.

also claim a share of old Ocean’s waifs and strays —
the “jetsam and flotsam” of the grey and melan-
choly waste ? Yes ; for in many a ‘sheltered cove
the heaped-up sand was rich in shells, when green,
lengthy ridges of broad-leaved seaweed fringed the
outline of the bay. Here were sea-hares and bubble-
shells, odd-fashioned crabs and tiny fragile shrimps.
Some of these had lived their little day in the
shallow pools hard by, but most of the more
beautiful fonns had been brought hither by the
Kuro-Sino, or Japan-stream, which sweeps along
the outer or eastern shores of the Japanese islands.
This Pacific gulf-stream runs at the rate of seventy
miles a day, bearing along on its bosom floating
islets of Sargossa weed, and many animal forms
of oceanic origin, such as Clio and Cavolina,
glass-like Ptcroj^ods ; the transparent shells of
Spirialis and Atlanta ; and those Pelagian skeleton-
shrimps, Alima and Eriehthus. Besides these
I found the hemispherical pearly eyes of oceanic
cuttles, the round l)laddery floats of the gulf-weed,
and the carapaces of the sailor-crab called Planes.

ORGANIC GEMS IN MARINE DEBRIS.

319

Many otlier forms, alas ! I also saw, but was un-
able to identify ; exquisite organisms only indicated
by stray fragments and detaclied members, the
minute anatomy of which was very elaborate. How
the fragile shells of Bulla, which were somewhat
numerous, had escaped destruction from the rolling
stones among which they lay, Avas to me a mystery,
although 1 easily imagined their safety ensured
from the buffetings of the waves by reason of their
lio-htness. From the same cause the shells of lan-
thina were cast ashore here in a perfect condition.
As for the milk-AAdiite Aventletraps and polished
Eulimae, and the tribe of tiny Kissoids which I
likewise disentombed, they were once living inhabi-
tants of the giant Laminarife that now lay rotting
on the beach. The Foraminifera or Ehizopods
were very abundant in some portions of this
marine debris, and as the eye alighted upon their
highly sculptured forms, Avhen scanning under
the lens this mass of crude fragments, I Avas quite
startled to see the contrast betAveen the rude inor-
ganic bodies and the perfect results of animal life.

320 INTERCOURSE WITH JAPANESE <JENTLEMEN.

The contemplation of so mucli beauty in so small a
space, of so many organic gems in a little dehris^
could not but fill the mind with wonder ! Every
wisp and every wrinkle of the grand nebula of
Orion,” says Professor Niclioll, '' is a sand-heap of
stars.” My sand-heap here, though of less proj)or-
tions, was equally as wonderful.

^ ^ si:

Three Japanese gentlemen, who messed with us
for some months, rendered our stay at Kino-O-Sima
extremely pleasant, and the people belonging to the
villages were very friendly in. their intercourse.
Araki, a Japanese ofiicer of high rank, was a tall
handsome man, with prominent features, very much
resembling those of a Korth American Indian ; he
was always very abstemious, dressed elegantly, and
was courtly in his manner.

Kuro-Sima, the next in rank, was an oldish
large-headed man, short of stature, and somewhat
grotesque in appearance. He was very jocular, and
had no objection to creature comforts, which he
evidently enjoyed.

NxVnVE PILOT.

3?a

Tatisli, tlie interpreter, Avas a wily, spare, little,
pock-marked mau, Avitli a sinister eye. He possessed
great sagacity and cimning, Avars prond of liis knoAv-
ledge of English, and alvv^ays a little afraid of Araki ;
being, in fact, concerned about the safety of liis
head especially, after a night of saki and conver-
sation, Avhen he feared he might, perhaps, have
been too communicatHe concerning Japanese man-
ners and customs.

The native pilot Avas a cheery old man, Avith
a cautious, Avrinkled, broAvn face. His Aveather-
beaten head Avas, tied up in an old^ blue handker-
chief, and his gaunt form Avas nearly ahvays bent
in the most obsequious manner. >

One of the most beautiful of the bivah^e shells of
Japan is the Amussium Japonicum, a kind of large
smooth Scallop. The Japanese fishermen call it
‘‘ Tsuki-hi-kai,” or Sun-and-moon shell,” from its
presenting a yellow disk on one side, and a Avhite
one on the other. Many shells have native names,
Avliich are knoAvn only to the fishermen. On my
iijquiiing of Araki the name of a shell, he A\muld

:322

IXDISCRIMmATING COLLECTORS.

call one of the boatmen, and ask him, saying with a
smile, Japanese words were too nnmcrous, and his
head too small to contain them all.

Seeing the interest I took in objects of natural
history, he kindly* communicated my wants to the
fishermen of Tatiyama. The collecting, however, of
these poor but willing hands was too indiscrimi-
nating. They brought off large basketsful of broken,
wave-worn shells from the beach, most of them more
like each other than anything else. In consequence,
when darkness veiled the ungracious act, they were
quietly passed over the ship’s side, and the waters
of their native bay closed over them for ever.

323

CHAPTER XXII.

Tho Literature of Japan— Books — ^Tllustratioiis — Voyage Home — Oceanic
Pheno7nena~Black Fish — Bouitoes — Dolphins — Floating Tree —
Pelagian Molluscs — Sea Nettles — Skeleton Shrimps — Sailor Grabs
— Rapid Growth of Barnacles — A Pretty Kettle of Fish.

Although I am not acquainted witli the literature
of Japan, which, I am informed, is rather extensive,
I cannot conclude my ohseiwations on this interest-
ing country without making a few remarks upon it.
In the houses of the wealthy may bo seen many
books and maps. Their works on geoguaphy contain
accounts of their thousand and one islands; their
dramas are of a sensational character ; they delight
in long poems on love and war, and have abun-
dance of memoirs, legends, books on etiquette, and
descriptions of their ceremonies, manners, and cus-
toms. They have even, I am informed, a national
encyclopfedia. Many of these works are jM'ofusely
illustrated by woodcuts and engravings printed in

Y 2

LITERATURE OF JAPAN.

3U

colours. I possess myself what I believe to be a
rare little book, consisting of a series of beautiful
etchings of towns and scenery, done on copper.

Among my Japanese books, two are very excel-
lent. One is a book of birds, reminding me some-
what of the splendid “Birds of Australia,” in
which Gould, assisted by his wife, has given us
drawings not only of the birds themselves, but also
of the flowers, plants, trees, or localities Avhich are
most afiected by them. This work is something of
the same nature. Tlie Japanese artist has depicted
the swallows winging their way through the air,
the familiar wren hopping jauntily about the
flowers in the garden, the snow-bunting j)erchcd on
the branches of snow-laden fir-trees, the sportive
fly-catchers pursuing their insect prey in the bright
sun, the butcher-bird sitting watchfid, with cruel
eye, on the outstretched arm of an oak, the little
lively tits peering about for grubs among the
branches of Persimmon trees, the coot dreaming on
the margin of a lake, the lark walking on the
ground, the sparrow in the rice-field, the plover

ILLUSTKATED WORK.

325

rising from tlie swamp, tlie pigeon sitting quiet in
a mulberry tree, the egret stalking among the iris
leaves, and the kingfisher perched on the top of an
upright stump, looking down upon the Avater.

Another very interesting book in my collection
is an illustrated edition of the ‘‘Wonders of Nature
and Art in Japan.” It contains a view of a burning
mountain in a state of eruption, probably that of
OhiBsima, pouring out a volume of smoke, stones,
and lava from its crater. There is a capitally
painted view of a mine, probably a gold mine in the
island of Sado, Avliere, by the light of oil lamps
suspended from the sides, the miners are seen
descending the dark shafts by means of nearly
perpendicular notched trees, till they reach the
recesses and cavities in the dim region below,
which is occupied by other workers, whom Ave see
crouching on stages and mats using the pick, and
diligently searching for the precious ore. Another
draAving represents some celebrated waterfall, Avhich,
forming a succession of cascades, dashes down the
cedar-crowned heights of a steep and rocky moun-

3^6

SPECIMENS OF PICTORIAL ART.

tain, with the rosy clouds of sunset floating around
its base. A wondeiful observatory, su])ported by
vertical slender piles, is perched on the very apex of
a lofty sugar-loaf hill. A covered staircase reaches
to the aerial house, by which the almost per-
pendicular sides of the mountain peak can be
ascended. Here a long and narrow bridge seems
to cross an arm of the sea, and there are many
other drawings dej^icting the natural appearance of
the country; a wild cavern-scene, for instance, of
rugged rocks and foaming water a representation
of some gigantic conifer, cedar, or fir tree, the
girth of which a party at the base are endeavour-
ing to measure by joining hands. " In one picture,
a group of excited beings is seen struggling with
the strings of a gigantic kite, on which a fearful
dragon is painted, while clouds of coloured paper
descend from it. In a drawing which represents
several enormous fir-trees, very ancient and con-
torted, men with burdens on their backs are seen
passing under the arching roots which rise above
the surface of the ground, to indicate their huge

STARTLING PICTURES.

327

dimensions. Tlic fiimous Namto, or whirlpool in
the Inland Sea, is depicted, with its rocky dangers
and eddying waters. The artist has even attempted
to realise the fearful earthquake wave, similar to
that which, not very long ago, overwhelmed the
town of Simoda. The perils of whaling form the
subjects of some startling pictures. The boatmen
are hurling spears from their painted boats, and the
dark leviathan of the deep is seen plunging beneath
the foaming waters, his mighty tail being the
principal object in the foreground of tlie picture.

Tea-houses, embowered in clouds of the pink>
coloured blossoms of the almond tree, and overlook-
ing a river on which boats are sailing, and distant
hills ; bridges of vast proportions, with comphcated
wooden beams, put together with consummate skill
and ingenuity ; a snow storm ; a long, low, undu-
lating bridge, like the uneven back of the far-
famed sea-serpent, are also among the wonders of
nature and art contained in this curious Japanese

volume.

328

OCEANIC PHENOMENA.

Oiir voyage home was not distinguished by any
event demanding j^articular notice. The capture of
a recent sj^ecies of Beleropliina, a form imagined
to be only found in a fossil state, and the represen-
tative of those great extinct cephalopods which
formerly disported themselves on the surface of
primmval seas, is, however, worthy of record.
During the monotony of long tedious voyages, even
trivial objects are often invested with a strange
fictitious interest ; the otherwise unoccupied mind
finding a dreamy pleasure in contemplating the few
oceanic phenomena which present themselves. The
vigorous leap of the bonitoes, and the glittering
bodies of the fl}fing-fish, as they drop exhausted one
after the other into the sea ; the huge rolling bodies
of unwieldy black-fish, their dark skins rough with
barnacles, moving through the water ; the pretty
white boatswain-bird, with his marline-spike of a
tail, hovering round the glittering vane at the main-
mast head ; the azure glint of the dolphins shining;
through the deep pellucid water ; a passing ship ;
the capture of a shark; a patch of floating gulf-

SCHOOL OF BROWN CETACEANS.

229

weed, witli its colony of sailor-crabs and little
fishes; the spar of some lost ship, white with
clustering barnacles ; the clouds, the water-spouts,
the changes of the wind, arc all so many incidents
Avliich are viewed and watched mth absorbing
interest.

About one hundred miles from Java Head, at a
time when the sea was nearly calm, a huge tree,
torn by some tempest from its native forest, came
drifting by the ship, hoary with clustering Lepades,
and with swimming-crabs clinging to it as ship-
wrecked mariners to a raft. Eager for the barnacles,
short, banded tmnk-fish kept close alongside, making
sudden onslaughts upon the helpless cirrhepedes. A
shoal of bright green parrot-fish hovered in tlie rear,
and more lustrous still, three blue sharks were
darting about. In the distance, a school of broA\Ti
cetaceans, round -backed and long-nosed, came
coursing along, vaulting, head downwards, and
wantonly pursuing each other. Onwards they went,
by fifties and by hundreds, leaping, tumbling, and
dashing the spray about, so as to 'cause the mast-

330

PELAGIAN FAUNULA.

headman to sing out from aloft, “Something like
breakers on the starboard bow.” The whole surface
of tlie water was alive with those fragile lesser
forms of being Avhich constitute of themselves a
peculiai’ Pelagian faunula. Among these might be
observed the blue vesicles of Physalia and the indigo
disks of Porpita, the pellucid bells and globes and
mushroom bodies of the Acalcpha, or Sea-nettles,
and the glassy shrimps, Erichthus and Alima.
When, by means of a towing net, these were
assembled together in a vessel of sea-water, the
interest Avas doubled, for noAv we beiian to dis-
cern the erratic evolutions of the Entomostraca,
the steady progress of the small cerulean Pontia,
and the skeleton-form of long-eyed Leucifer. These
moved fihnost iimsible among the equally pellucid
Sagittee, true arroAVS, darting, as their name im-
plies, Avith rigid bodies through the AA^ater. Then
uprose Avith flapping AAungs the globose Cavolina,
and Styliola in her tube-like shell. Amid these
varied examples of oceanic life, AAdiat is that tiny
floating bubble ? It is nautiloid, and yet no

PHRONIMA ATLANTICA.

331

nautilus, nor is there any keel to- constitute it an
Atlanta — it is a recent Beleropliina !

Although it is perfectly true of tlie large-headed
transparent shrimps comprising the family Phrono-
midm that they are more or less parasitic, being
found stowed away in the pouches and other
cavities of the equally pellucid Acalepha?, yet some-
times they swim freely about, and are frequently
taken in the towing-net. I have obtained a speci-
men from the cavity of a large Salpa, and they
may, therefore, be said to be parasitic on mollusca
as well as on Acalepha, In its free and inde-
pendent state, when observed in a vessel of, sea-
water, Phronima atlantica is perfectly transparent,
and the slender arms and tumid hands are covered
with red-brown dots. In its habits it is somewhat
peculiai’, even for a shrimp. Suspended head down-
wards in the water, it remains motionless like a
spider in its web, the long hind legs extended with
the tai-sal joints all bent back, the prehensile
arms, with their gibbose spotted hands, arched
inwards, and the tail curved forward towards the

332 •

ASCENSION.

head. In this attitude of attention it remains
eagerly on the Avatch, and whhe staring with its
great eyes, separating its jaws, and keeping ready
its mandibles, the false feet of the abdomen are
incessantly at work producing a current towards
the mouth. • 'No sooner is some minute organic
particle drawn within the influence of the vortex
than the head and tail of the Phronima are brouo'ht
together, and the object is immediately seized, and,
if large enough, conveyed by the thumb and finger
of the freckled hands to the mouth and greedily
devoured. When placed in spirits the skin be-
comes opaque, the colour of the legs is changed into
a pale yellow, and the red-brown spots disa2:>pear.
When we compare the delicate oceanic organisms,
seen fresh from the deep sea, with the specimens in
our bottles, well may we mournfully exclaim with
St. Pierre, '^Our books are but the romance of
nature, and our museums her tombs.”

At Ascension, while the ship^s com2>any were
fishing from the maindeck ports, some excitement
was occasioned by one of their hooks being seized

i

PRETTY KETTLE OF FISH.

S33

apparently by a large fish. ' The imaginary prize was
heavy, and when rapidly hauled up, appeared to
the amused bystanders in the form of an old iron
tea-kettle without a spoilt! Curiosity induced a
sailor to peer into the interior, when he observed
two eyes of some strange animal, undreamed of in
his philosophy, gazing.at him. Attempts were made
to get him out, but the occupant could not be
dislodged. Here was a pretty kettle of fish ! As
persuasion w’as of no avail, a bold hand was intro-
duced, when it was immediately seized by a fleshy
coil, and retained by a hundred suckers. The hand
was forcibly withdrawn in terror, while the great
eyes continued to stare upwards from the place of
security where it had settled itself. The kettle with
its mysterious lodger was now submitted to the
doctor, who was expected to solve all questions
respecting this strange phenomenon. While pon-
dering on the best means of dislodging the creature,
he unexpectedly relieved us from the dilemma by
suddenly making his exit, and shufiling rapidly
along the deck in a grotesque and startling manner,

334

A SPECIMEN IN SPIRITS.

revealing at the same time the form and action
of a great warty cuttle-fish. Alas ! poor Octopus
rugosust He was at once caught, and very soon
became a specimen in spirits.

THE END.

BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., FRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS, LONDON.

.. -1^ Sjo.

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