only felt a comfortable warmth: there was no hot sensation at all. I am certain that anybody could go over without any unpleasant effects, if he stepped quickly enough and did not scrape his feet in any way. One must step cleanly, so to speak.
"H, of the British Consulate in Yokohama, followed me the first time, and later on a young lady from Yokohama picked up her skirts and skipped over amid cheers from the crowd. H said that he felt his feet a little sore after he had come off. The first time I went, I did not feel the least bad effect. The second time, some one in front having delayed me a moment by stopping on the salt patch at the end, I felt one foot slightly hot, and for about an hour afterwards a small patch of skin at one side felt very slightly sore; but when I examined my feet at night, I could see nothing, and the feeling of soreness was gone.
"I am not physiologist enough to give any explanation as to why we were not burnt. When a boy, I placed an iron kettle of boiling water, just off the fire, on the palm of my hand, and held it there for fifteen seconds or so, and it only felt slightly warm. I think the explanation of that was that the soot on the bottom was a good non-conductor, and that the moisture of the hand, quickly evaporating, formed a layer of steam which prevented actual contact of the metal and skin. The Kudan 'miracle' may have a similar explanation. The surface of the charcoal-bed was at least half-black, not red-hot, and the damp salt may have provided the necessary moisture."
Fishing. Various queer methods of fishing are still employed in the rural districts of Japan. In some of the central provinces, baskets may be seen hung over a waterfall to catch such fish as attempt to leap it. In certain other places for instance, at Numata on the Tonegawa—this arrangement is modified by the construction of an inclined bamboo platform, which produces an upward flow towards the centre of the stream. Thither the fish are carried by the force of the artificial current, as described in
