Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1873-06-25
Miscellany.
Journeylngs In Japan.
..psa4ea,, Of n. sptinri.ld R.puSil..a.

cOu'spoaaenss ofths sPsinEisid R.PuhlisAa.
Orr NAeAsAKI. (Jspsnl March 20 '73.
The last hours Of the longest uninter-
rup,ed steam journey Of the world was
drawing to close; tho japanese coast
vas already visible, t,int bank OF blue
on the western horizon; the Kurosiwo.
the Gulf stream Of the Pacific, had been
crossed without the usual accompaniment
Of storm au1 disagreeable weather, and
the afternoon in consequence was being
devoted to mutual congratulations that 81
days of weary monotony were so nearly
finished, when, presto! in half an hours
time our smiling skies were hidden be-
hind Jagged masses Of ink y-colored vapors.
aud two hours later our good boat was
laying to in hurricane that spread de-
vaststion through the feet Of the fishers,
made mourning 10 many hnmleis on the
shore, and for brief IL hours blew with
violence that several whaling captains
who were our passengers declared in
sea-life of 30 years they had never seen
equsled. The morning Of the following
day, having spert its fury on hapless
junks and lucsless villages, our prov was
once more turned to the land and with
scarce y air enough to lit the penant
from the mas. was soon close in with that
most graceful Of all mountains, Fusiyama.
Presenting an almost perfe city cone
shaped from any point of approach, it
stands stately sentinel at the eptrace of
l'Yeddo bay,-a land mark visable hun
drcd miles at sea,-an object of natiosal
pride to the inhabitants of the empire,
and whose beauties are lauded in scores
of native odes, concerning which exists
legends and surcrstitions innumcrablc, and
whose inmagc is transferred to nearly
every article ofthe beautiful lacquer work
of the country. The masts had yelled it
from our sight until VIC gained our nearest
point of approach when suddenly lifting
like the rising Of curtain they left un-
covered threc-quar ters of its bulk. Around
its base the last remnant Of the gale had
marshaled its defeated forces aud was
storming heavily, while above lowered the
remainder Of its IA 900 feet of hight. The
effect of the clear sunshine ON the obscur-
ity of the valley below ; the dazzling pure
SHOWS that Wrapped their mantle round it,
in sharp contrast with the gloomy, threat
ening cloud batialious at its foot: the
dark blue of the sky against which its
white outline was SO clearly marked, and
the suddeness with which our attention
had be en- called to it, created an impress
sion that will linger in our memories, a
most charming picture of landscape, long
after its faultless proportions are separated
from us by the leagues of other lands and
oceans.
Steaming rapidly past the deserted
batteries that the Japanese lad oneo so
fondly hoped would suffice TO keep outside
'Darbariaus" from their domains, 35
/! miles were quickly sped over, the ship
made fast TO her moorings, the farce OF
the custom.h house gone through with and
ourselves safely landed in the coun.
try where English and American in6u-
ences contend so stubbornly for ascendeu.
cy. To attempt to describe 10 a single
letter territory toward which the eyes
of the world are now directed to gain a
hold on which is the object of unceasine
intrigue on the part of foreign govern.
ments; land whose customs, religion,
scenery and resources have been thought
incapable of treatment in less than many
volumns,each, would course prove futile
and absurd. therefore content myself,
now that il has been parted from, to dc
as heretofore, and, aided by memory only,
make hasty and imperfect pen-dashes oi
some of the chief objects that imprinted
themselves on my mind and served tc
make pleasant the six weeks passed in
what is poeticlly called in the native Ian
guage the land Of the rising SUR. On tho
bluff to the south of Yokohama are the
!! bungalows of the foreign ministers and
wealthier people. That becomes in con.
/, sequence the fashionable quarter, from
whose heights is commanded a most agree
able panorama of harbor and long sweeY
of shore and villages which trend toward
Yeddc. Three or four miles beyond thi'
Yokohaman Belgravia the land is deeply
dented by Mississippi bay, sheet of waite
whose merits find no diminution in awak
t. ening by their familiarity, recollections o
the Neapolitan gulf, whose fame is world
vide. AS the road surmounts the steel
ascent that leads to the race-course ant
reveals most unexpectedly this charming
combination of land and sea, he must in
deed be dead to all sense Of the beautiful
who feels no admiration wakened in hin