Turning to the district north of Nagasaki, we observe that the road from that town to Tokeets, as it skirts round the head of the harbour to cross the narrow isthmus of the Omura Peninsula, follows a line of cliff formed of agglomerate overlying a light-coloured friable trachyte; and long after the harbour is left behind, for a distance of from two to three miles, the road continues to skirt the base of this inland cliff, following in truth the line of the ancient channel already referred to in this paper. As one proceeds towards Tokeets, the trachyte assumes a more compact texture; and at a point where the road, which has previously been confined to a level plain, enters the hills, about four miles from Nagasaki, this rock exhibits a spheroidal structure, each spheroid being about three feet in diameter and enclosing within its concentric coats a nucleus of the size of a 32-lb. shot. A few steps further on, one observes an intrusion of trap, probably a phonolite: and from this point the trachyte, as exhibited in a slight declivity which has been carved or hewn out into niches for the reception of stone figures, assumes a darker colour. When about a mile and a half or two miles from Tokeets, the road, which has by this time reached its highest elevation from 175 to 200 feet above the sea, dips down into a deep cutting, at the top of which occurs the bed of water-worn rock-fragments which has been alluded to above. About half-way down the cutting, extensive dikes of a dark trap-rock-probably diabase-protrude through a quartz-porphyry; whilst near the foot of the cutting, occurs another small dike of blue basalt: all these dikes, which trend in an east and west direction, are vertical protrusions. On approaching Tokeets, the trachyte again appears; and near the bend in the road which suddenly displays to view the picturesque bay of this village, this rock exhibits a porphyritic structure. Two huge masses of this porphyritic trachyte, which overlook the road, have received the name of "The Giant's Head" from the Japanese, on account of the rude resemblance which they present to a human head and bust.

About half a mile to the east of the Tokeets road, lies the

hamlet of Meecheno, where exists a thermal spring. When I visited this spring in November 1879, I found its temperature, which was 74° F., to be 12° above that of the surrounding air: it had no odour, was quite clear, and, as the villagers informed me, was fit for drinking purposes: it contains, as I subsequently found, a moderate amount of lime in solution. To its existence the hamlet of Meecheno probably owes its being; and the inhabitants by conducting the water to a neighbouring bath-house employ artificial means to raise it to a temperature for bathing. The rock in the vicinity of the spring appears to be an “altered”, argillite: whilst a very tough mottled phonolite occurs at the base of a hill to the eastward of Meecheno,-a granitic rock destitute of mica forming the summit, and an "altered" argillite intervening between the two. In the bed of the stream, which flows from the lower end of the valley and crosses the Tokeets road about a mile and a quarter from the head of the harbour, I observed a highly calcareous and siliceous rock, followed in the lower portion of the stream by basaltic and trachytic porphyries.

An interesting traverse may be made along the road from Yagami to Isahaye,-a distance of eight or nine miles,-following the line of the original channel that once united the Gulf of Omura with Yagami Bay. The road between the villages of Heemi and Yagami displays in its cuttings agglomerate and beds of a fine-grained sandstone and shale which dip about 50° to the west. Proceeding by the road to Isahaye, one observes a light-coloured eurite to be the prevailing rock as far as the hamlet of Koga, about two and a half miles from Yagami. Beyond Koga, a region of trachytic porphyry begins; -specimens of this rock which I obtained exhibited fine crystals of glassy felspar. This trachyte is followed by a speckled sandstone* dipping to the north-west at an angle of 40°. On approaching the shore of the Gulf of Omura, beds of sand

* This same speckled sandstone is to be observed in the hamlet of Koga, dipping about 45° to the castward.

stone and shale are observed dipping 35° to the north-west: and as the road passes through the village of Kaieesa, about two miles from Isahaye, a dislocation of these beds is displayed in a cutting, which exhibits not only an alteration in the dip but a twisting round of the line of strike. I traced the sandstone and shale as far as the village of Isahaye. Striking off to the north-west in the direction of the town of Omura, about seven miles distant, the road for the first two miles lies along the same low-lying country, with fragments of a dark phonolite lying on the surface. It then crosses a hill elevated between 600 and 700 feet above the waters of the Gulf; a sandstone dipping gently to the south-south-east forms the lower twothirds of this hill; whilst its summit displays a dark grey phonolite. Before reaching Omura the road crosses a succession of low hills, which exhibit at rare intervals a decomposed felspathic rock; whilst a dark pitchstone is to be observed in the hill overlooking the town.

Not the least interesting locality of the region to which this paper refers, is that of the Simabara Peninsula. This rugged promontory attains in the cloud-topped peaks of Unzen an elevation of not less than 4,700 feet above the sea* (measurement by aneroid). Tradition has located an active volcano on the summit of this mountain: and, that a similar belief is current at the present day, the following testimony will be sufficient to cite. The China and Japan Sea Directory, for as recent a period as 1873, refers to an active volcano in the centre of the peninsula, "over which a dark cloud of smoke usually rests;" whilst Dr. S. W. Williams in a "Lecture on Japan," published in the Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for May 1859, describes Mount Unzen as "a volcano still in action;" and lastly, we find a

* There is no measurement of the height of Mount Unzen given in the Admiralty chart. The only estimate I have been able to find is that of 3,500 feet, which I have derived from a "Lecture on Japan," by S. W. Williams, LL D., published in the Journal of the N-C. B. of the Royal Asiatic Society for May 1859: it is greatly under-estimated.

writer in the "Treaty Ports of China and Japan" describing the town of Simabara (Minato) as "backed by a huge mountain whence the hidden fires still send up a gentle stream of smoke on a cloudless day." There would appear to be some facts which explain this current belief: and history in truth relates, that in 1792 or 1793 (the date varies in different accounts) there was a violent volcanic eruption in this mountain, which, being attended by a most disastrous earthquake, not only devastated the neighbouring country, destroying 53,000 of the inhabitants, but is said to have been felt through the whole of Kiusiu, and to have permanently affected the adjacent coast-line and territory of the province of Higo. There is little doubt, but that the striking resemblance, which Unzen presents to a truncated cone, often capped by clouds, when viewed from the hills overlooking the village of Mogi, affords an explanation of the persistence of this popular error as to its present activity. For loth as I am to detract from the romance which has been vulgarly attached to the volcano of Simabara, I grieve to write, that not only did I observe that this mountain loses its volcanic profile when regarded from other points of view, but that having stood on one of Unzen's highest summits and having crossed the peninsula from west to east, I failed to find any signs of the existence of an active volcanic vent. Yet I may urge, that the occurrence on the western flanks of this mountain of the hot springs of Wobama, Kojeego, and Unzen, which are probably intimately connected in their past history with the disastrous earthquake of last century, does not entirely divest this mountainous Peninsula of Simabara of its claims to be included within the present dominion of Vulcan.

Commencing the ascent from the fishing-village of Wobama on the western shore of the peninsula, the path led me up through the zone of trees, which extends up the mountain slopes to a height of about 1,100 feet above the sea. Rising gra

In the vicinity of Nagasaki the upper limit of the zone of trees is very marked when viewed from the town; its level being from 900 to 1,000 feet above the sea.

dually from a height of 1.700 feet to a level of 2,500 feet, the higher portion of the peninsula may be best described as an extended plateau, from which springs the double peak of Unzen which attains another 2,000 feet or more of elevation. Such are the more conspicuous physical features of this region. With regard to its more strictly geological characters, I may remark that a sanidine-t'achyte, rendered porphyritic by the fine crystals of glassy felspar embedded in its matrix, is the prevailing rock on both the eastern and western slopes of this mountainous peninsula; and that it extends from the sea-level up to the eastern summit of the double peak. This porphyritic trachyte varies somewhat in its characters: on the east slopes, the matrix appears to be more felspathic and is of a lighter colour than in the rock of the opposite side of the mountain; whilst regular crystals of hornblende are often associated with those of the sanidine, particularly in the neighbourhood of Minato on the west slopes, the matrix is of a light bluish colour, and becomes strangely altered in the vicinity of the hot springs of Kojeego and Unzen,—a subject to be immediately considered.

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Overlooking the populous town of Minato which is situated on the eastern shore of the Simabara Peninsula, there rises an abrupt desolate-looking hill which is completely detached from the main mountain-mass. The "why-and-wherefore" of its precipitous sides, the explanation of its peculiar form and of the strangeness of its situation, must have often afforded subjects for speculation to the casual visitor, if not to the inhabitants of the locality. It is in truth one of those hills, which-to employ the figurative language of Dr. Macculloch-" seem as if they had tumbled from the clouds." Tradition avers-and tradition generally has something to say in these matters-that during one of the earthquakes which have devastated the district of Simabara, this hill was detached and parted asunder from the parent-mass. But whether this explanation is a satisfactory one, I had neither the time nor the opportunity to determine.