The Superstition that Volcanoes Breed in her People Before the Japan Society recently the Rev. W. Weston gave an account of his recent explorations in the Japanese Alps.
Mr. Douglas Freshfield, who presided, said that he was one of the few English globetrotters who 41 had discovered that Japan had more than one mountain, He protested against the catchword that Japan had become spoiled. Visitors could still find the unmis tigated Japan of which they had read and seen pictures since childhood.
The lecturer said that the Japanese worship of mountains was largely coloured with superstition owing to the disastrous power of their volcanoes. A thousand years ago the authorities, alarmed by the violent behaviour of a very active volcano in the south of the island, awarded it the Order of the Junior Branch of the Fourth Rank, which would be like presenting Vesuvius with the Italian equivalent of the M.B.E. (Laughter.) The Japanese Alpine Club, which was formed 15 years ago, was now 1,500 strong, and could show 3 remarkable growth in the pursuit of mountaineering in the most modern sense as a popular recreation, with its own art, literature, and practical development. Every summer the popular climbing centres were filled with students, who combined strenuous recreation with scientific research. They were now Jearning how good a thing it was for a man sometimes to get out of himself to mount to those
appeal was direct to his spiritual high and holy places, where, the nature.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.