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hama to Nagasaki they traverse the Sagami Nada, Tôtômi or Enshiu Nada, Tenriu Nada, Bingo Nada, Suwô Nada, Genkai Nada, Hibiki Nada, and Matsura Nada. Suwô Nada has often been supposed to be the proper equivalent for what we have naturally called the Inland Sea, but it simply means the sea adjacent to the province of Suwô. Séto-uchi (inside of the channels), which has been adopted in our later charts, is the correct name. I am reminded by the mention of the Inland Sea, that many of the names in our charts are either so badly spent as to be unrecognizable when pronounced by a foreigner, or are altogether wrong. For instance, the large island off Bizen, called Shôdzu shima, is spelt Sozu, and Mutsuré in the western entrance of Shimonoséki Straits, on which a lighthouse has been recently erected, is mis-called Rockuren. The town of Marugamé in Sanuki is called Mura kamé in many of the charts published by the English Admiralty. It is no wonder, therefore, that native pilots are often accused of being ignorant of the names of places which it is their special business to know. The blame lies, not with the surveying officers who have prepared the charts, but with the native interpreters attached to them, who are often unable to read the names on Japanese maps. The mistake of Rockuren for Mutsuré evidently arose in this manner. The native name for the Shimonoséki strait is Hayato no séto, for the Idzumi strait, Kado no Séto, and for the Tsugaru strait, Mim’maya no oki, from a port of that name in Tsugaru.
The number of harbours and trading ports called ô-mi-nato, or large harbours, by the Japanese, is fifty-six. A great many of these are no doubt inaccessible to European vessels of even moderate size.
Beginning. with the Hokkaidô we find Matsumaë and Hakodaté in Oshima. Across the Tsugaru straits lie Fukaura, Ajisawa, Mim’maya, Awamori, Sai and Okuto in Michinoku. Passing down the east coast we come to Miyako in Rikuchiu, Kesen, Ishinomaki, Sabusawa and Sendai in Rikuzen, Hiragata close to the boundary of
