Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/202

198 bluffs, pines and rocks very much as at famous Matsushima. Altogether I believe that the student here enjoys more picturesque natural surroundings than at any other laboratory in the world. And we may add to this the unzoological item that the headland has a romantic background. For here was the castle of Arai, famed in Japanese history as having withstood for several years the siege of the Hojo regents during the fourteenth century: and on every hand are memories of its past glory.

If I digress a bit, I might point out that the student dormitory, amid the old pines on the hilltop above the laboratory, and next to Professor Mitsukuri's villa, is built on the exact site of the ancient castle, and here interesting relics have been found; such, for example, was a fragment of a splendid gold-crested helmet dug up during my stay. Near by are traces of fortifications, and a store-room excavated in the rocky bluff during the ancient days of the castle. The bay, at the side of the laboratory, is still called the 'Red Harbor,' because at