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For any one acquainted with the Japanese language, I think no trip can be more interesting than the one here roughly sketched out.
J. A. LINDO,
Lieut. Royal Engineers,
(Dutch Army).
The Minutes of the last General Meeting were read and approved, and it was announced that the following gentlemen had been elected Ordinary Members of the Society:—Lieut. A. J. Lindo, R.E. Dutch Army; Drs. A. J. Geerts and Dwight Dickinson; and Messrs. S. Parry, T. Lepper, Julius Bryner, and F. Walker.
Dr. Geerts then read his second paper on the “Useful Minerals and Metallurgy of the Japanese.” It treated, on this occasion, of the metallurgy and properties of the Copper of this country.
The Chairman tendered the thanks of the Society to the author for his valuable and exhaustive paper on the Metal for which, perhaps above all others, Japan was most famous.
In reply to a question from the Rev. Mr. Syle, Dr. Geerts said that “yaki” was a mineral of a greenish colour, which, though it did not itself contain much copper, was nevertheless very useful, as it indicated wherever it was found that copper ores also existed in the vicinity.
Mr. R. Vicars Boyle then read a paper by Mr. J. A. Lindo entitled “A trip to Niigata, and back by the Mikuni Pass.” The reader had kindly furnished, in illustration of the paper, some maps upon which the route might be followed.
The Chairman observed that Mr. Lindo had described not only one but two interesting journeys, and his account showed that a trip to Niigata by either of the routes which he had taken was full of attraction. The interest of the subject, however, was not limited to travel only. Niigata is a place of considerable promise; as a Treaty Port it is said to be opened to foreign trade, but it is really closed to it by the natural obstacle of the bar at the mouth of the Shinanogawa. It is of great importance to commerce that this obstacle should be removed. As the surrounding country is very rich its vast crops of rice give it the name of the Granary of the nation, and it also produces minerals, petroleum, tea, tobacco, hemp,