115
farmers as rent of the land. As this right, though ostensibly the salary of a sinecure office, was handed down from father to son, the samurai were virtually owners of their land, and the manner in which they acquiesced in the surrender of their revenues to the central government reflects the highest honour on their patriotism. It has been the fashion with many foreigners to bestow a great deal of commiseration on the farmers or, as they may be more accurately styled, farm-labourers. It is probably true that the government does exact from them a higher rent than that with which the former owners were satisfied, but the change of ownership does not affect them to any perceptible fraction of the extent to which it affects their betters. In an old and thickly populated country unskilled labour at a healthy occupation cannot be expected to earn more than will provide the rude necessaries of life, and these the field labourers certainly possess, if the healthy sturdy appearance of themselves and their children may be taken as a criterion.
The climate presents a striking example of the modifications produced by the physical conformation of the country. In winter although snow to the depth of five or six feet lies on the ground from early in December till late in March, yet owing to the protection afforded by the surrounding mountains, the cold is not by any means so trying as that experienced at Tôkiô during the prevalence of the northerly winds. The beat in summer is about equal to that of Tôkiô.
There are several hot springs in the district, those of Onogawa, Akayu and Go-hiki being the most noted. I believe that they all contain more or less iron and sulphur. I have soma bottles of the different waters which I shall be happy to place at the disposal of any gentleman who may desire to analyse them. Their medicinal properties are held in high estimation, each spring being considered a specific for some particular disease. The waters at Go-hiki are under the special protection of whoever in the Japanese mythology may correspond to the goddess Lucina.
