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charming spots on the Mikani road. Leaving Mitsmata the road becomes very bad, great sharp stone points protrude everywhere, and the ascending of the steep inclines is very difficult. Before F’tai is reached two high hills have to be crossed, which are separated from each other by a deep valley. The road is here seen over all the length of the valley, winding zig-zag along the slope of the hills through the dense verdure; on the top of the second one a fine view is to be had over the village of F’tai, lying nearly 600 feet below. This village consists of one street only, with some 40 houses; it has, like Asakai, quite a modern aspect; for during the last war both places were burnt down by the Tycoon’s troops, and are now being slowly rebuilt. From F’tai the road gradually ascends to a spot named Kiridos, where a narrow passage is cut through two hills, and from where it descends rapidly to the valley of the Yogawa, a left feeder of the Kiodzu-sawa, the last named river having been crossed at F’tai. This Yogawa valley was seen from F’tai upwards, but the road remained at a considerable distance from the river, which streams along the foot of the hills over which the road is led, hid under the dense shrubs which cover the slopes, and only heard in the rushing sound of its water.
Very slowly ascending through the Yogawa valley, through which the road is comparatively so low situated that it is often submerged, when after heavy rainfalls, the river is in high flood, Asakai is reached, where the properly named Mikuni-pass begins, which continues to Nangai, the total length between those places being 3 ri 16 cho.
At Asakai the road begins to ascend tolerably slowly to Taske-goya, whence it goes by zig-zag, and with heavy inclines to the small temple of Gogén, which is at the highest point. It is throughout not broader than 6 feet, and as it winds up the mountains, now from one side, then from another, a superb view is to be had into the valley of the Yogawa from which we ascend. The mountain slopes are all covered with thickets, through which everywhere a patch is broken, uniting two branches of a zig-
