A Lovely Sunset--An Official Letter--A "Front Horse"--Japanese
Courtesy--The Steam Ferry--Coolies Abscond--A Team of Savages--A
Drove of Horses--Floral Beauties--An Unbeaten Track--A Ghostly
Dwelling--Solitude and Eeriness.

GINSAINOMA, YEZO, August 17.

I am once again in the wilds! I am sitting outside an upper room
built out almost over a lonely lake, with wooded points purpling
and still shadows deepening in the sinking sun. A number of men
are dragging down the nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which
they have just despatched with spears. There is no village, and
the busy clatter of the cicada and the rustle of the forest are the
only sounds which float on the still evening air. The sunset
colours are pink and green; on the tinted water lie the waxen cups
of great water-lilies, and above the wooded heights the pointed,
craggy, and altogether naked summit of the volcano of Komono-taki
flushes red in the sunset. Not the least of the charms of the
evening is that I am absolutely alone, having ridden the eighteen
miles from Hakodate without Ito or an attendant of any kind; have
unsaddled my own horse, and by means of much politeness and a
dexterous use of Japanese substantives have secured a good room and
supper of rice, eggs, and black beans for myself and a mash of
beans for my horse, which, as it belongs to the Kaitakushi, and has
the dignity of iron shoes, is entitled to special consideration!

I am not yet off the "beaten track," but my spirits are rising with