We left Kobe in a coasting steamer, making several calls at Japanese and Korean ports on the way to Chefoo, Tien-tsin being her destination. Our course lay through the Inland Sea. This sea is in its widest part some forty miles across, and in other parts very narrow, and we were for miles threading tortuous channels not more than one or two cables' length in breadth. The sea is not studded, it is in places simply crowded with islands, mountainous and rocky, always picturesque, and, except when we are out in the more open parts, thronged with junks, sampans, and fishing-boats of every kind. Some of the narrow straits through which we passed reminded me of the Kyles of Bute, and for hundreds of miles we had scenery far exceeding the finest parts of the West Coast of Scotland.

Our first calling-place was Shimonoseki, where we only waited long enough to leave and receive mails, and we then went on to Nagasaki, where we remained thirty-six hours. We arrived at Nagasaki about nine p.m. It was a splendid starlight night, and the appearance of the harbour—one of the finest in the world—was very striking. The harbour itself is about two or three miles long, and completely shut in by steep hills of considerable height.