111
junction with the Yamagata Ken a waggon road is being constructed to connect the two places, and a large portion in the latter Ken is already completed. A proposition was made to the Okitama Ken to make a road between Yonezawa and Fukushima, the Fukushima people offering to pay 50,000 Yen, if the Yonezawa people would pay the same sum; but the latter do not like parting with their money. There is some talk of all that portion of the Ôshiu kaidô which is in the Fukushima Kea being put into proper repair; but it seems doubtful whether it would not be better to abandon it and make a new road; for as the Abukuma gawa finds it way from Shirakawa to Fukushima, it is reasonable to suppose that it would be possible by following its course to make a nearly level road, instead of as now crossing all the spurs that strike out from the grand central rage. Some portions of the upper waters of the Abukuma gawa are navigable for small boats, but near Nihon Matsu there are dangerous rapids. From Fukushima there is a good deal of traffic by it to Arakawa on the Bay of Sendai, 13 ri from the sea port of Ishibashi on the opposite side of the Bay.
In all the towns here named is to be found excellent accommodation for travellers and exceedingly cheap, except indeed at some places south of Utsunomiya where the innkeepers have learnt to demand a special rate for foreigners. The charge for supper, bath, bed and breakfast is three quarters of a bu in the very best hotels. In villages it is even less: at Kubota, on the Kinugawa, there was a notice posted up announcing that, in consequence of the high price of provisions the innkeepers had made an agreement to fix the price of first-class accomodation at 15 sen!
As a means of communication the Ôshiu kaidô is not to be commended, the portion north of the Kinu gawa being in such bad order as to be only not absolutely impassable for carriages; but one must not leave it without saying something of the scenery through which it passes. The blue mountains, along which one travels for days
