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Niigata put in here for shelter, but it is unfortunately open on the north side and consequently in northerly gales, which are very prevalent during the winter months, vessels have to make for the Bay of Omi, a small harbour on the east coast, or for Futami Bay which is on the southern end of the island. At Yebisu there is a temple picturesquely situated on the crest of a steep hill, and from here to Aikawa, the locality of the mines, the scenery is tolerably pretty, and the road just before Aikawa is reached goes over a pass some 500 feet high.
Sado is well known on account of the gold mines to which it owes its importance. Aikawa the chief town of Sadô, and the head-quarters of the local administration, lies at the extreme south of the island. It has a population of 10,000 inhabitants, but the rest of the island is but thinly populated. The road connecting Aikawa with Yebisu, the small town from which the northern Bay takes its name, is the only decent road on the island, and we fear we must plead guilty to the charge of “damning with faint praise,” as all that can be said in its favour is that it might be worse. There are several villages at certain distances along this route, but the western and north-western portions of Sadô are mountainous and almost totally uncultivated.
From the fact of there being gold mines in Sado, one is naturally inclined to look for signs of a certain degree of prosperity among its inhabitants, but the reverse of this is the case. The villages are wretched and dirty in the extreme, and the people appear to be miserably poor. What natural wealth it possesses has done little for the island, if we may judge from outward appearances. Even Aikawa, which should be a rich thriving town, has the appearance of an ordinary fishing village. The upper part of the town where the Kencho and mining office are situated is not so bad, but in the lower town dirtiness and poverty prevail in a very marked degree, and the houses are mostly wretched hovels.
As a natural consequence labour is absurdly cheap in
