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deep and rapid, and abounds with a fish called ai. Pack-horses cannot pass this stream, and the next station on the left bank being 30 chô from the river a considerable delay in the journey takes place. Halt for the night at Funania, a village of small importance.
11th August.—From Funania to Ishigami.
From Funania to Tamania (1 ri 28 chô) about 8 chô past Tamania is a rapid torrent which can only he passed by fording. It is about 30 metres broad, and is often impassable. It is called by the country people the Arakawa. From this torrent to Takauchi (2 ri 10 chô) the road is wooded, picturesque, and the stream swift; the general direction East.
From Takauchi to Ishigami 3 ri. Two unimportant streams may be forded, and just before reaching Ishigami, a considerable stream, often impassable, named Hokigawa, running from N. to S., has to be crossed. The general direction of the road is N.
From Ishigama to Kiwattahada, 5 ri. The last three ri traverse the great plain of Nasunohara. This plain appears about ten to fifteen ri long and from three to five broad, and is covered with grass and fern, like all the hara in Japan. There are few or no trees, and little water or trace of cultivation. No house is to be met with until Kiwattahada, a village consisting of a few cottages. One ri before arriving there the traveller is still among the mountains. Beautiful streams of fresh water are to be met with, and vast dry beds of torrents, indicative of terrible storms, and bearing enormous blocks of stone and uprooted trees. From the plain of Nasunohara Mount Tsukubsan may be seen towards the S.E., and the vast chain of the Nasusan running from S.W. to N.E.
From Kiwattahada to Muronoi, three ri, over a very bad road, and with a second hara to traverse. Before reaching the village of Murunoi, a considerable torrent named Nakagawa is reached and must be forded. From Muronoi to Yamoto, 2 ri. Leaving Muronoi the gorge of the Nasusan is reached. The road becomes extremely difficult, in some places very muddy, sometimes steep and
