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with some kind of pipe very melodious flute-like notes, that seemed by their sweetness to show great musical taste, though there was seldom even an approach to a tune. It turned out that the hollow stem of a tall weed, four or five feet long, was blown through at the small end, and the variation in the notes was produced simply by the natural breaking up of the vibrating column of air into halves, quarters, thirds and the like.

13th July. We set out this morning with eleven dug-out canoes and five Ainos to most of them, four to the rest; forty-eight Ainos in all. A few Ainos and all the Japanese boatmen had been sent back from Kamoikotan. We had still with us, besides the Japanese coolie interpreter for the Ainos, two Japanese coolies, my cook, my boy, Mr. Akiyama (assistant geologist, quartermaster, entomological collector and sounder of rivers), and the interpreter (acting also as assistant geologist and botanical collector); making with myself fifty-six men in all.

The current was at first still very strong, with many large rocks in the stream, and the strength of the Ainos was well strained. A couple of miles above the Harushinai camp, we came however to a place where the river was for a short distance free from such rocks, and straight with a uniform current, and we stopped to measure it roughly.

Above the Osarappe the current becomes a little less violent, and we soon came to a fish-weir, the first we had seen since leaving the Toyohira, and the first sign of the Aino settlements of the upper Ishcari. About a mile (15 chô) above the Osarappe we came to the Chubets on our right, a river a hundred feet or so in width, with a discharge of perhaps 550 cubic feet a second. A short distance up it is the "Obanya," which figures so largely on Mastura's map that you would suppose it at least to be a very important trading post. It had been agreed that we should stop near here, even if we arrived early, in order to give our Upper Ishcari Ainos a chance to visit their homes or neighbors. But before camping we went on a mile and a half further up the Ishcari, passing an Aino house on the way, and stopped at a good clean wide beach of sand and pebbles opposite another Aino house; having accomplished according to my sketching 734 miles (3.1 ri) in the day.

We had come into a beautiful level region with prairies and light woods, and with distant mountains in almost all directions, and with

Ishcaridake towering up before us to the east, with many large snow patches on its top. It was impossible to help exclaiming that this was the Cashmere of Japan. I insisted that if the Mikado should come to Sapporo next year he should by all means be brought to the upper Ishcari; for the trip would be a very easy one, and he would not only be delighted with the scenery and with the wildness of the region, but would enjoy the novelty of a little camp-life, which could easily be made as comfortable and luxurious as could be wished. The greatest Mogul Indian Emperors traveled much with a camp, and sometimes most luxuriously. A river steamer drawing less than five feet could go all the way from Ishcaributo to within fifteen miles (6 ri) of Kamoikotan, and by deepening one place of three feet deep, some one hundred yards long, it could go to within a mile or so of Kamoikotan. The distance is about 110 miles from Ishcaributo, and could easily be run in ten or eleven hours. From the landing place a wagon road of seven or eight miles could be made without trouble into the heart of the little paradise of the Upper Ishcari. His Imperial Highness could therefore sleep on the comfortable river steamer at Ishcari (or on the sea steamer), could start at dawn or a little later, arrive at Kaimoikotan by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and be taken in a comfortable coach by 5 o'clock to a camp either near where we camped or on some of the hills nearer to Kamoikotan. One of the hills was said by the interpreter to resemble a famous mountain in his country, where there was once a great city. The steamer, if allowed to, might make daily trips and bring up any number of followers of the Court as well as supplies of food. If the Emperor were so inclined he could indulge in a little hunting; and he could even set apart the whole of this little valley for his hunting park. But I trust that its plain will rather be covered with grain to be ground at the mills of Kamoikotan, and with flax to be made there into linen. If the Emperor should come once, he would surely wish to come often, as those great Mogul Emperors used to go to Cashmere, a far lengthier journey; and he would perhaps like them build a fine summer palace and baths, and he could ornament them with the marble and serpentine of Kamiokotan.

THE REVISED STATUTES OF THE UNITED STATES.

'HE statutes at large of the United States, or the general laws

terests of citizens generally than is ordinarily supposed, and they deserve more attention than they have heretofore received. They are not simply scattered and disconnected fragments of legislation, the force of which is special or local; on the contrary, the several departments of legal authority which they represent have crystallized into what may be described as a sort of common law for each and also for the whole. Thus the powers conferred on Congress by the Constitution to provide for the common defense have resulted in a system of law for the army and navy which may be regarded as being practically unalterable during the existence of the Government; not that special laws and possibly material changes may not at any time be enacted, but the greater portion of the statutes organizing the army and the naval service have not been, and are not likely to be, changed. These laws should be studied as a whole by all connected with their operation or administration, and, indeed, such study should be made the duty of all officers educated for either service.

Again, the foreign relations of the Government and the powers conferred on Congress to legislate for the interests of the nation on its relation to other governments have developed a body of practically fixed laws on that subject, which all citizens should study to some extent, and particularly those who are called to represent the country abroad, or to administer laws of this class at home. The State Department should promote the study of statutory and international law at the same time, and show how well the limits of power and of duty have been defined by the text of the law and by the precedents of administration. I believe that no government of Europe has a policy better defined or more firmly established than ours has been during the brief century of its existence.

Still more extended and important is the system of law on which the revenue and finance administration of the government is based. That which we call the Treasury Department has been enlarged beyond all others since the skeleton of its establishment was erected in the act of September 2, 1789, until it now far surpasses in its scope,

as well as in the magnitude of its transactions, the corresponding administrative or executive department of any foreign government. It is also remarkable to what extent the earliest legislation in relation to commerce, shipping and the revenue from imports has remained unaltered to the present time. The acts of July 20, 1790, in relation to the government and regulation of seamen; that of December 31, 1792, in relation to the registry and recording of ships and vessels; of February 13, 1793, in relation to the coasting trade; of February 25, 1799, in relation to quarantine, and of March 2, 1799, regulating the collection of duties on imports, are comprehensive acts, substantially remaining in force as the basis of all law on those specific subjects. In the Revised Statutes as now enacted there are four hundred and twenty sections to be found copied literally from the above-named acts and others which were enacted from August 7, 1789, to March 2, 1799, twenty-six general acts of that date remaining unrepealed at the date of the revision, December 1, 1873.

Indeed, on this great subject of the revenue and finance administration there is a sort of common law, embodied in half forgotten statutes up to the time of the revision, but which was always and everywhere enforced. Its powers and limitations, as well as the rights and duties of citizens under it, should be as well known as the power of the writ of habeas corpus, or the right of trial by jury. Yet it is not understood as it should be, and the gravest errors of omission or of positive infraction are common with those who surely would not violate any ordinary law enacted by State or municipal authority. Congress may at any time change the specific form in which revenues are levied, or the rate of duty to be charged on specific articles, just as the municipal tax rate may be in one year one per cent. and in another two or three per cent.; but the machinery for collection and enforcement, with the relative duties and rights of all the parties to payment and collection remain substantially the same. It is too generally believed that such laws are special and peculiar, and that there is no general system the enforcement of which is indispensable to the national existence.

And after the legislative department has enacted laws and the several executive departments have enforced them, there is the further great system of appeal and review, the judiciary. This system is uery ample, resting on a large number of statutes, the wisdom and sufficiency of which have been vindicated through almost a century

of successful administration. Title XIII, of the Revision, "The Judiciary," embraces twenty-one chapters, and five hundred and sixtythree sections, being next to the treasury or revenue system in the extent of legislation represented. Such a body of laws must necessarily be of the highest importance, and worthy of the profound study, at least, of every one aspiring to a knowledge of the law, if not of intelligent citizens generally. Yet the record of judicial administration in the United States Courts is very brief, almost meagre, and the several series of United States reports rare and difficult of access. Now that the acts prescribing the powers and duties of the national judiciary, which heretofore have been scattered through the seventeen volumes of statutes at large, in such manner as to render it impossible for an expert to find the portions remaining in force, have been brought together in the Revision, there may be some effective study of them attempted. No foreign judicial authority, not even the English, from which our system is more nearly derived, will compare with ours in the breadth and scope of its decisions, especially in such as relate to the outlining and limitation of the legislative authority itself under a written constitution.

I have said that generally the subjects and text of national legislation are with us too little known and studied by the most intelligent, and I repeat what the experience of any observing man will justify me in asserting, that an elucidation of the national statutes is needed as well as the Revision which has been fortunately secured. There is a reason for the want of attention heretofore given them that lies deep in the history of the country. It is the strong aversion existing from the earliest times to any centralized power, or any general government in the least degree analogous to the government from which the colonies were forced to separate. The fear that centralized power would be abused, was ingrained in the very hearts of the sturdy men who would have fought half a century, if such time had been neces-. sary, in the effort to free themselves from the restraints of arbitrary power; and even when a national organization became indispensable to the common defense and the general welfare, they yielded to the general government the most meagre skeleton of authority only, retaining in the colony or state everything necessary to the assertion and defense of personal liberty, and the right of taxation. Singular instances of this reluctance to yield to the 'authority of the general government in doubtful cases were frequent in early history, one of

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