New Britain herald., 1921-06-24
Moonlight Night

Moonlight Night
 Fortunately for us, it was a nice moonlight night, otherwise it would have been dark at D. m., so I could follow the, trail without much diff
 culty. As I had a good horse, I easily kept the lead, and frequently
 L would have to stop at some good turn in the trail and wait for the others to come up with me, when
 would start on again unless the other
 horses wanted to rest, which of
 course, was frequently the case, especially as we approached the top.
 This method of ascending kept my
 horse quite fresh, which, later on,
 reacted upon me with much greater force than otherwise would have been the case. It happened in this way. Just as I was negotiating the last reach up the sixth station, I ob- served that it was more steep than usual. so I leaned forward in the saddle and urged my horse up this steep incline. which she took at her utmost speed. Just as I was about al the top of this incline I dimly saw something across the path ahead of me. so I quickly ducked my head still lower. but not quick enough or low enough, and the top of my head struck this object at such an angle that it did not knock me off of my horse. Fortunately, I had on a thick felt hat which saved my scalp from being cut, and the natural thickness of my head saved me from a fractured skull My hat was knocked off, and it took twenty minutes at least to find it.
 Different Stations.
 Investigation disclosed the fact that there is a shrine at the sixth station, and at the approach, or path, to every shrine there is a torii, or prayer gate. and this is what I bumped into. A torii is constructed of two columns one on each side of the approach to a shrine. and a connecting beam at the top of the column. This beam is mortised through the columns near the top and projects a short distance beyond them: the projecting ends curvinS slightly upward. As the landing at the sixth station is mar row, there was no room for an ap- proach to the shrine at right angles to the trail, so they set up their torii right across the trail.
 As I said in the foregoing, we | reached the eighth station at 10:30 l D. m., and as soon the keeper (hachi- -ban-ya) of the hut could | spread a couple of futons on the floor for us to lie on and give us two more apiece to put over us, we inn mediately retired for the balance of the night. We did not remove our hats. coats or shoes, neither did we unloosen a button or unite a string, but we just dropped onto those futons and pulled the other two over us. as it was about zero weather at that altitude G2, 1000 feet), and
 When we arose the next morning the wind was blowing with such terrific violence that we had to abandon the trip to the top, notwith- our proximity to it. Men who had reached the top the pre- ceding day and were now descending the mountain were blown flat onto the ground by the violence of tho wind. About 10 q. m. We beean our descent on foot, as we had dismissed our horses the night before. We. each of us, had on first class goggles and tied a Handkerchief over our face to prevent the flying cinders from cutting the skin, yet they would Impinge on the handkerchief with such force as to be quite painful
 In our descent I had an excellent opportunity to see the route We had traversed the night before, and it