Japan and the Japanese

SIMOD/ AND ITS VICINITY. 527
which a certain berry, upon which pheasants and partridges feed,
grows very plentifully.
" In one of the larger temples a place has been arranged for the
daguerreotype, and Mr. Brown is actively at work. He has obtained
many very fine daguerreotypes of the Japanese, and will
have a fine collection to show when "he reaches home. Mr. Heine
continues his sketching, drawing, painting, gunning, skinning, press-
ing, and preserving plants. Lieutenants Murray, Bent, Whiting,
Nicholson, etc. etc., have been busily engaged in the survey, and
deserve no small credit for their exertions and the important
results they have obtained."
Of (his visit to Simoda, the officer of the Vandalia already quoted
thus speaks :
" Here we were permitted to go on shore and ramble about in a
circuit for ten miles, much to our delight, as we all felt the want
of exercise. Excepting at Yokohama, where we were not allowed
to go far from the audience house, we had not been on shore since
we left Lew Chew. They watched us very closely at first, sending
guards of soldiers to accompany us, shutting the shops, and conceal-
ing the women ; but in a few days these restrictions were removed,
and we were left undisturbed to wander where we pleased. The
town, containing eight thousand people, is pleasantly situated in a
well-cultivated valley, surrounded by high hills that conceal from
view the entrance to its safe and picturesque harbor. The streets
are wide and straight, and the better class of houses two stories
high, plastered, and roofed with elegant tiles.* The interior is kept
very clean and neat, and the rooms, covered with mats, are separated
from each other by sliding screens, that are closed or removed
at pleasure. There are no chimneys in Japan. A charcoal fire is
built in a little sand-pit in the middle of the floor, around which
the family are usually found seated on their knees [qu. heels?],
drinking tea and smoking their pipes. Not a chair or any other
piece of furniture can be seen. Tubs of water are kept in front of
each house, as well as on the roofs, in readiness
against any fire,
for conflagrations
are so frequent and extensive, that whole towns
are sometimes burnt down.
* See, as to the roofs in Hakodade, p. 529, and employ these tivo passages
k> reconcile the discrepancy noticed on p. 297, note.