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as an agreeable summer resort, although it should be stated that they are entirely destitute of all resources for European life. The temperature is cool, and in winter the streams are frozen for several weeks.
If desirous to regain the Tokaido, the traveller must take the route from Nakiji to Fukura which is undulating and picturesque. From Nakaji to Harajika, by Fukura, there are five ri to traverse, over a good country. The mountains assume a bolder character as you approach Wakamatsu.
The slopes from mount Kanehori and Takizawa are steep. Towards the North lie the vast plain of Aidzu and its capital Wakamatsu which is reached after a march of 8 or 9 ri from Nakiji,—a fatiguing walk on account of the disintegrated filex which forms the soil from Ojukaido for several kilometres before reaching Wakamatsu.
Wakamatsu is the capital of the ancient province of Aidzu. It is a considerable town, but possessed formerly a far larger population than at present. The Castle of the Princes of Aidzu, situated on a hill at a short distance from the town, has been destroyed and razed to the ground. The town is situated nearly in the centre of a great oval plain, of from 10 to 12 ri in its longest diameter, and constituting what is properly called the Aidzu country. This plain is fertile, cultivated with rice, and watered by many rivulets which descend from the surrounding mountains, and which unite in the principal stream which flows out of the Lake Inawashiro.
Besides Lake Inawashiro, there are in the basin of Aidzu, two other lakes or lagoons; the waters of these three lakes uniting to form the river which flows towards Niigata. A fourth lake named Kosemura, which is said to be situated on the N. E. slope of the mountains of Nikko also discharges its waters into the same basin, which also carries a large volume of water in the Japan Sea.
The mountains which surround the plain of Aidzu are majestic, and many are very lofty, among others the Bandaisan to the Northeast, the form of which is remarkable; Miyojingatake to the South; and the Itoyosan
