The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1885-04-15
In the Inland Sea of Japan.

not sailed through the inland sea of
Japan. Imagine three hundred miles
OF scenery far surprising Lake George;
still the water often almost entirely
land-locked, mountains rising from the
waters edge, green and tree-eovered;
islands cultivated in terraces; fishing
villages nesting on the green shore or
back among the trees every where but
on the most barren mountains, whose
ribs defy flesh, most tropical greenness,
mountains far away, hidden by NOM
ing cloud, veiled with the forenoon
mist, blue in the Moons distance, and
fading in the twilight; tropical sunsets
tuned with a delieacy Of color and tint
that will ever defy the greatest artist 10
copy; sky, mountain, water, all chang-
ing as on you sail; old volcanoes of any
height from two to six thousand feet;
hillsides fecked with sunlight staying
through the clinging cloud~;junks, with
their great, huge, unwieltlly-loOking
sterns, and great mat-sails hanging
idly on their single masts; natives put
ting their olive faces out Of pink win
dOws, or thrOnging OH the decks tn see
the nine years wOnder-a steamship
plOughing through their beautiful lakes;
clouds, without which mountain scene
ry is only half finished; climate delight
ful; temples and palaces; forts battered
down, and forts defiant; messy lawns
between the mountains foot and sea;
bays crawled with junks at anchor; but
mOuntains-always mountains, of
every shape and color; hills like the
ehalk-hills OF. Old England, hills like the
sandstone Of the Connecticut, hills like
the rounded coast hills Of Massachusetts,
and hills ribbed and gabbled like the
Sierras all in profusiOn. Take
your choice of beauty shouldered up
from the ocean depths into the sunlight.
Fancy Lake George and Champlain
scenery for wohundred and fifty miles,
and you have the nearest siBile. though
inadequate to express it. Ny English
friend in admiration, exclaims, as we
round "a point, and find narrow exit
from an apparently land-locked bay:
where's your Lake George now?"
The water turns green, the shores mar
row down the entrance to few cable
lengths. Wonder, ahead is a reef Of
rocks, leaving only two cables for our
passage, and through this We must
pass. The tide is rushing us along
towards the danger. We have come
seven miles in twenty-five minutes.
railroad speed. Our safety is in our
speed, and all the pressure bottled up
in the boiler for an hour back is given
to the engine now.
The reef that was SO far ahead three
minutes ago is on our beam. Settling
waters rush over the sunken rocks
abreast. We dart through the narrow
passage left Us, and are at the beginning
of the worst whirlpool OH the coast, if
not in the world Every body been has
screwing up his courage for it, but it is
no wonder our faces blanch q little
when We are once i'm without return; we
must go through this whirling tide,
capped with white foam from the mad
dening rocks below. The captain gives
the orders from the bridge, in a steady
but excited voice, and you feel that
promptness and the steering qualities
of the ship are her only salvation. Lit
tie cares he for the native pilot in this
whirl, forty times worse than Hell, Gate
aud far worse than the rapids of the st.
Lawrence. Now the ship strikes the out
er rush Ofthe whirlpool. Port. Hard
a-portw and the echoes, as ii is passed
forward, thunder Port. Hard a-port"
The three men tug at the wheel, and
the rudder, almost immovable against
the force of water aft, slowly Obeys.
Little nope for the ship now were the
steering apparatus to be at fault for a
second. She careens heavily TO the
starboard, the wheels make their ten
revolutions, 'doing all they know"
and slowly the ship, getting wholly into
the whirl, when stern and bow drift
equally TO port. answered her ridder,
and her nose is again for the center of
the pool. And now she enters the
comparatively still water of the centre.
The buoyaut native boats yonder turn
out their crews, they hold up their arms
and utter yell of alarm. They never
saw a ship take this passage before.
They will tell to their children and
grandchildren, as they stroll herring
with pine knots, and spear heads over
the side. Now be very CAREFUL" and
the mate answers: Gay, ay, sir" and
and we are in the outer whirl again.
Hard a-starboard!n and the echoes
answer, and the noble ship-you feel
like patting her and saying: Good
fellow good fellowr'-answers; and,
fairly in the current, We are carried
like child in its mothers arms. :.
Ii was a scene of awful and never To be
forgotten peril, but the moral of the
remembrance is, that they know how
to steer in Japan about rs well as in
Old or New England. 7rdreIer,
Not Pleasant story.
WASHINGTON disnateh says tho