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and should be in six sheets viz: one sheet for the island of Yezo,—one sheset for the Main Island, to extend aa far as Lake Inabashiro—second sheet for Main Island to extend as fat as Lake Biwa. Third sheet for the remainder of the Main Island. One sheet for the island of Sikok, and adjoining coast. One sheet for the island of Kiusiu, and adjoining coast. The probable cost of executing these completely and in a finished manner would be about $400, the principal items in which sum consist of the Chinese, or Japanese, draughtsmen. Then maps might be enlarged from Japanese maps, many of which are of very considerable accuracy. In fact so accurate are they that some of the present charts used by navigators are compiled from them.
The maps so made would be useful only for hanging on walls, and tracing journeys on with a pointer. They would not be suitable for measuring from, or for photographing or otherwise copying.
Mr. Brunton then read his paper on “Constructive Art in Japan.”
Mr. Cargill acquiesced in the observations made by Mr. Brunton on the indifferent material used in building, such as spongy bricks, lime that had lost its essential quality, and indifferent timber which began to rot as soon as it was put to use, and that as for the grotesque but pretentions specimens of the foreign style of architecture in Yokohama, to which he had drawn attention in the New Town Hall and Custom House, he might have added the new Post office, and the British Consulate, the latter being especially hideous. As for the adaptation of buildings to resist earthquakes, and the general use of timber in Japan for the temples and other costly structures which, from their antiquity, seem to have resisted shocks that had proved so disastrous to many towns, he presumed that timber was deemed well suited for resisting those terrible visitations. In other countries the same idea prevailed. He had heard people in San Francisco taking comfort from having so many of their houses built of timber, and being on that account more safe. The town of Wellington in New Zealand is wholly built of wood, private dwellings, public buildings, and churches, including even lofty steeples, that neighbourhood being subject to constant severe vibrations of the earth, and no other building material being deemed safe.
Sir Harry Parkes was of opinion that the light and elastic style of Japanese architecture had no reference to the necessities, or apprehensions occasioned by earthquakes. It is a primitive style of building taken chiefly from the Chinese, who are said to have followed the tent as their model in the long sweeping roof, supported, not on walls but on timber uprights. The Japanese have no experience of solid structures. To them in building timber is a material of first necessity, and scarcity of supply would be very seriously felt. It is probable that although the country within districts easy of access has been denuded of its timber belts of forest still remain which cannot at present be made available for want of means of transport.