I Had Not Admired The Wood Between Mori
And Ginsainoma (The Lakes) On The Sullen, Grey Day On Which I
Saw
it before, but this time there was an abundance of light and shadow
and solar glitter, and many a
Scarlet spray and crimson trailer,
and many a maple flaming in the valleys, gladdened me with the
music of colour. From the top of the pass beyond the lakes there
is a grand view of the volcano in all its nakedness, with its lava
beds and fields of pumice, with the lakes of Onuma, Konuma, and
Ginsainoma, lying in the forests at its feet, and from the top of
another hill there is a remarkable view of windy Hakodate, with its
headland looking like Gibraltar. The slopes of this hill are
covered with the Aconitum Japonicum, of which the Ainos make their
arrow poison.
The yadoya at Togenoshita was a very pleasant and friendly one, and
when Ito woke me yesterday morning, saying, "Are you sorry that
it's the last morning? I am," I felt we had one subject in common,
for I was very sorry to end my pleasant Yezo tour, and very sorry
to part with the boy who had made himself more useful and
invaluable even than before. It was most wearisome to have
Hakodate in sight for twelve miles, so near across the bay, so far
across the long, flat, stony strip which connects the headland upon
which it is built with the mainland. For about three miles the
road is rudely macadamised, and as soon as the bare-footed horses
get upon it they seem lame of all their legs; they hang back,
stumbling, dragging, edging to the side, and trying to run down
every opening, so that when we got into the interminable main
street I sent Ito on to the Consulate for my letters, and
dismounted, hoping that as it was raining I should not see any
foreigners; but I was not so lucky, for first I met Mr. Dening, and
then, seeing the Consul and Dr. Hepburn coming down the road,
evidently dressed for dining in the flag-ship, and looking spruce
and clean, I dodged up an alley to avoid them; but they saw me, and
did not wonder that I wished to escape notice, for my old betto's
hat, my torn green paper waterproof, and my riding-skirt and boots,
were not only splashed but CAKED with mud, and I had the general
look of a person "fresh from the wilds." I. L. B.
Pleasant Last Impressions - The Japanese Junk - Ito Disappears - My
Letter of Thanks.
HAKODATE, YEZO, September 14, 1878.
This is my last day in Yezo, and the sun, shining brightly over the
grey and windy capital, is touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki
with a deeper red, and is brightening my last impressions, which,
like my first, are very pleasant. The bay is deep blue, flecked
with violet shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at
anchor. There are vessels of foreign rig too, but the wan, pale
junks lying motionless, or rolling into the harbour under their
great white sails, fascinate me as when I first saw them in the
Gulf of Yedo. They are antique-looking and picturesque, but are
fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle with stormy
seas.
Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100 feet
long, with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five feet. The bow
is long, and curves into a lofty stem, like that of a Roman galley,
finished with a beak head, to secure the forestay of the mast.
This beak is furnished with two large, goggle eyes. The mast is a
ponderous spar, fifty feet high, composed of pieces of pine,
pegged, glued, and hooped together. A heavy yard is hung
amidships. The sail is an oblong of widths of strong, white cotton
artistically "PUCKERED," not sewn together, but laced vertically,
leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between each two
widths. Instead of reefing in a strong wind, a width is unlaced,
so as to reduce the canvas vertically, not horizontally. Two blue
spheres commonly adorn the sail. The mast is placed well abaft,
and to tack or veer it is only necessary to reverse the sheet.
When on a wind the long bow and nose serve as a head-sail. The
high, square, piled-up stern, with its antique carving, and the
sides with their lattice-work, are wonderful, together with the
extraordinary size and projection of the rudder, and the length of
the tiller. The anchors are of grapnel shape, and the larger junks
have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end, giving one an idea
of bad holding-ground along the coast. They really are much like
the shape of a Chinese "small-footed" woman's shoe, and look very
unmanageable. They are of unpainted wood, and have a wintry,
ghastly look about them. {22}
I have parted with Ito finally to-day, with great regret. He has
served me faithfully, and on most common topics I can get much more
information through him than from any foreigner. I miss him
already, though he insisted on packing for me as usual, and put all
my things in order. His cleverness is something surprising.
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