October 31, 1917 - (continued) that both the birds and the mammals have been exterminated in the forests. I saw here many women and girls with red maroon skirt and black jackets, an unusual dress from the gray, blank kimono gown usually worn. Picturesque glimpses of the inland sea open up at intervals. The whole country has a peculiar association of the pine clad c. darinum hills set in semi-tropical rice fields and quaint villages. The railroad journey along the inland sea is more beautiful and interesting than by sea. The railroad often skirts the beach; in places the sea waves lapping the embankment. Deep inlets and quaint fishing villages are seen of which the voyager by steamer gets no inkling. The population is ____, the villages being numerous and the rice crop correspondingly heavy. The lower hillsides are, in places, etched in narrow rice terraces, peaking out from amidst the pine groves. In Japan, a W.C. has no sex. From Iwakuni station, which we passed at 2pm, much of the land was devoted to mulberry bushes. In gardens here, orange trees bearing green oranges were seen. Fig trees of large size with fruits and golden persimmons on [illegible] trees. This stretch is one of the finest garden spots I have seen in Japan. Japan has the green forested look of a country as it should be, not a bare or denuded hill in sight. China could be the same if the people had only the foresight, as they are wonderful agriculturists.