Passengers by the Mitsu Bishi and other steamers trading between this port and Yokohama will find much to interest and amuse them at the different ports of call. Nagasaki, with its lofty, encircling hills, presents a scene of rare beauty from' the water, the charm of which is very quickly' and ruthlessly dispelled soon after one has landed.
was when it was a flourishing port. To-day, however, things have sadly altered; the once prosperous settlement affords a sad picture of change and decay. Its streets are almost deserted and are not Bat the amount of custom they receive ticularly well kept. Grog-shops abound,
cannet be very great, except perhaps on the occasion of flying visits from ships of war when they probably make up for lost time and reap a rich harvest. When Jack is ashore he will have his beer in spite of Miss Weston and all other well-meaning philanthropists.
But if Nagasaki is declining, the star of Kobe is certainly in the ascendant. No sooner does the traveller land on the shores of this compact little settlement, than he sees more than ample proof of its commercial prosperity and well-being. Kobe, it may safely be said has a bright future in store. 'A twenty-four hours stay enables one to look round and visit many places of interest, amongst which the paper-mill stands pre-eminent. The writer, through the courtesy of the proprietors, Messrs, Walsh, Hall Ca., recently had an opportunity of inspecting this establishment. He took notes of what he observed, and in the hope that they may be of interest to the readers of this journal, he now ventures to give their arm and substance in the course of The mill was first opened in 1877, when its operations were limited to the manufacture of pulp. After an interval of two years the European company to which it belonged. prased into the hands of the present pro-went into liquidation; the business then
prietors, who supplemented it by the addition of a paper-making machine, The establishment, which is somewhat romantically situated under the shadow of a lofty range of hills, consists of a series of brick buildings, for the most part two stories high, covering an area of 83,304 square feet. The process consists of sorting, outting, dusting, boiling, washing, bleaching, beating, colouring,' straining, paper-making, pressing, drying, glazing, cutting, and packing. In sorting, the material is carefully picked over by Japanese women. Cotton rags are used for making best quality paper, whilst silk and woollen are employe' only for wrapping paper, To an outsider this seems strange, but the enterprising proprietors no doubt know their business. Next comes the cutting into small pieces th done by a "cutting machine, is a flat iron plate on which a eros knife and three longitudinal ones descend. The machine is fed by a travelling leather band 9in, wide driven by the main engin This process being satisfactorily accom-hed the rags are then dusted. The cylinder of open wood-work, with wire net and having a number of pointed iron spikes Gin. long projecting inwards, This cylinder is 4ft. Gi in diameter and 16ft. long. The rage are fed in at the upper open end of the linder: they are well tossed and turned about by the spikes, and fall to the floor through the lower end, the dust and dirt falling through the wire sides. The dusted rays are conveyed by an elevator to a stage over the rag-boilers in the next room.
The boiling is done in three largo revolving boilers made of wrought iron, each capable of holding about a ton of rags, Each boiler is carried upon two hollow trunnions fixed on massive cast iron frames through one of which steam from the main boilers is introduced at a strong pressure, The other trunnion admits either water or an alkaline solution in all positions of the boiler, whether volving or stationary. At one and of the boilers there is a man-hole; the other end is fitted with a perforated false bottom under which is a pipe through which the steam is discharged. The boilers are anid to revolve once in ten minutes by means of shafting connected with the main engine. the boiler is charged with rays through the man-hole from a "hopper" above, and after being about half-filled with water through the trannion, steam is turned on ard the man-hole fastened down, the air escaping at a cook in the lid. As soon as the water boils it is sot revolving and kept continually in motion until the sare sufficiently cooked. The time of boiling is stated to average nine or ten hours.
The rags are then passed on to the washing room, The washers" are large oval tanks about 10 ft. 6 in. long, 6 ft. Gin. wide and 2 ft. G in. deep, fitted with a horizontal cylinder revolving 160 times in a minute, The cylinder contains several clumps of bars or "knives" which run in very close proximity to a plate below carrying several knives bolted close together and set at an angle to the roller knives, so that they act as scizzors to the rags which pass between them, There are all sorts of contrivances in the way of screws, levers, etc., worked by a hand wheel for adjusting the rollo to the es. The roll is at one side of the tank which has a longitudinal partition in the centre, and the rotation of the roll tea uses the stuff to circulate round the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.