Geological researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan, during the years 1862-1865.

82 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN
The miners working in ore are paid according to the weight and quality of the
ore extracted, receiving one cent for every 10 kans, or 80 lbs. of best rough ore,
and one-half a cent for the same quantity of inferior.
When not working in ore they are paid by the running foot on the gallery
and the hardness of the rock, receiving per running shak,' or foot, 60 cents for the
hardest rock, and 14 for the softest, the average at these mines being 30 cents. One
man can advance a gallery one foot, in the hardest rock of these mines, in five days.
The timbering of the levels costs 10 cents per running foot, the wood growing in
the vicinity.
May 28th. Leaving the mines, we returned to the main road, and crossed the
watershed of the peninsula. The rock is concealed, but judging from numerous
fragments on the surface the older rocks of the ridge are covered with volcanic
conglomerate.
About twelve miles to the N. N. E. we saw the half ruined cone of the volcano
Komangadake, also called the Sawaradake. In the valley lying between us and
the peak, lay a picturesque lake surrounded by forests and meadows, and its banks
overhung with a rich vegetation. Beyond lay the beautiful Volcano bay. Descending from the ridge we passed the lake, and stopped for the night at the small
village of Skunope.
May 29th. Leaving Skunope we started to ascend the volcano. As our way lay
through the forest, coolies were sent ahead to clear a path in the underbrush. For
several miles we were in a dense wood much like a New England forest; the prevailing
trees being grand specimens of magnolia, beech, birch, maple, and oak, with immense
vines of grape, ivy, etc., clinging to their trunks and hanging from the boughs.
We came out of the forest upon the gentle foot-slope of the mountain, here
covered with a deposit of pumice that extended from where we stood to the summit, in the shape of a stream several hundred yards broad. Leaving the horses,
and keeping on the pumice, we soon reached the steeper ascent. The sides of the
volcano have been covered with a growth of large trees, where now only dead,
white trunks are left, some standing, but the greater number fallen. Many of these
lay in our path, while some, standing in their original positions, were surrounded
by the subaerial deposit of pumice which reached several feet above the roots.
We reached the edge of the crater at a point below the highest peak.
I was told that the Sawaradake was formerly a single cone, but that seven or
eight years before our visit this fell in, the occurrence being accompanied or preceded by a severe earthquake, and an eruption of hot water and pumice, the sand
of which was carried by the winds as far as the Kurile Islands.
The crater is now several hundred feet deep, with steep walls, and entirely open
toward the sea on the east. The bottom is formed by a convex mass of pumice
which extends with an unbroken slope through the opening to the sea-shore.
Great cracks traverse this plain in every direction, distinguishable, from our position on the summit, by their raised, yellow edges, forming long ridges, as though
gigantic moles had undermined the plain, and by rows of steam jets
1 The shak is about one-fifteenth of an inch shorter than our foot.