_Foogee Yama_ since our arrival in the waters of Japan, as the Howadjis on the Nile tell of the great pyramid, seemed to follow us wherever we went. When the cold clear morning of February found us running into the bay of Kawatsoo, we saw over our bowsprit Foogee, looming up in austere magnificence. When our colors were hauled down in the evening at Yokohama, every one admired the majestic beauty of Foogee peering like a ponderous pile of marble out of the furnace of sunset. If the rains fell heavily during the night, when the curtain of cloud lifted up in the morning, in patches here and there, Foogee appeared to wear under its mantle of chilling cold, a garment of genial green; and when the Mississippi lay at Webster island, from her hurricane-deck, above the line of pines that covered the bold bluffs of the shore, sometimes near, sometimes afar off, its summit clothed in fleecy clouds of deferential beauty, grandly shone the towering mound; so now, land-locked and our view shut in by the high hills around Simoda, we missed Foogee Yama. [Illustration: _LITH. OF SARONY & Co. NEW YORK._ FOOGEE YAMA.] CHAPTER XIII. On the 13th of May, the fifty days after the signing of the treaty having nearly expired, the Powhatan and Mississippi started for Hakodadi, leaving the storeship Supply at anchor at Simoda. Instead of keeping in shore, the two steamers stood off and ran between _Oho Sima_ and _Ja Sima_. The day being clear, _Foogee_ from his aerial height was soon looking at us. We ran quite close to the southwestern side, and had a good view of Oho Sima. The whole island appears to have been upheaved by volcanic action from the sea. From the jaws of a basin-shaped crater, issued white smoke and ashes. The side of the mountain next to us was marked by large fissures, or streaked with streams of lava. The vegetation on many of the slopes presented a pretty picture, when contrasted with the dull-charred mass that encompassed it. There are said to be three towns on the place. We saw two quite plainly, but where their harbor is, or how the steep shores are approached in rough weather, it was difficult to perceive. After rounding Oho Sima, we stood into the land, and during the day ran in full sight of the shores of Niphon, running northward from the entrance of the bay of Yedo. The fields of barley, just assuming its yellow dress, were spread out as far as the vision extended inland. Both ships stopped at intervals to make soundings. At one time, when we had stopped for this purpose, and got bottom, at twenty-eight fathoms, on what is called an “over-fall,” the opposition of current and wind made a “chow-chow” sea, which swashed over our rail, while the fine buoyant sea-boats of Japanese fishermen around, danced dryly like ducks.