disposal used now by western nations. Provision is made for the
removal of storm waters but when I asked my interpreter if it was
not the custom of the city during the winter months to discharge its
night soil into the sea, as a quicker and cheaper mode of disposal,
his reply came quick and sharp, "No, that would be waste. We throw
nothing away. It is worth too much money." In such public places as
rail way stations provision is made for saving, not for wasting, and
even along the country roads screens invite the traveler to stop,
primarily for profit to the owner more than for personal
convenience.

Between Yokohama and Tokyo along the electric car line and not far
distant from the seashore, there were to be seen in February very
many long, fence-high screens extending east and west, strongly
inclined to the north, and built out of rice straw, closely tied
together and supported on bamboo poles carried upon posts of wood
set in the ground. These screens, set in parallel series of five to
ten or more in number and several hundred feet long, were used for
the purpose of drying varieties of delicate seaweed, these being
spread out in the manner shown in Fig. 3.

The seaweed is first spread upon separate ten by twelve inch straw
mats, forming a thin layer seven by eight inches. These mats are
held by means of wooden skewers forced through the body of the
screen, exposing the seaweed to the direct sunshine. After becoming
dry the rectangles of seaweed are piled in bundles an inch thick,
cut once in two, forming packages four by seven inches, which are
neatly tied and thus exposed for sale as soup stock and for other
purposes. To obtain this seaweed from the ocean small shrubs and the
limbs of trees are set up in the bottom of shallow water, as seen in