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would be of the greatest importance. And it would be wise on the part of the Government to institute detailed surveys of the ports in Sendai bay, with a view to the selection and improvement of the most suitable for an increasing trade. There is probably no port in Japan where a larger export of the more bulky production of the country would be drawn directly from the interior.
The 3rd of November was a very rough cold day with frequent squalls of rain and sleet. We started early from Ichinosiki, crossed at once a large tributary of the Kitakami, and thence followed up the road on the Western side of the main valley. A fine mountain group lies North-east of Ichinosiki, which has the appearance of a detatched mass, but is really the commencement of a range of mountains on the East side of the river. Its slopes are very picturesque. The valley is well cultivated with rice, wheat, beans, and hemp, the last being made into twine used for fishing nets, the manufacture of which seems to employ a large part of the population.
Passing sometimes over spurs of the uplands the road continues up the western side of the valley, and reaches Miozusawa at 634 ri. After dinner we made a straight course up the valley, coming at two ri by boat to another good-sized tributary emerging from the mountains to the West. At the next station we could see no horses to go forward, and therefore employed a couple of coolies who easily carried all the baggage belonging to the three of us. The road rises on some well-wooded uplands, from whence a fine view of the river and its valley is obtained. This view, with a background of wooded mountains having these lower slopes cultivated in patches, I enjoyed from a house situated just where the road descends again into the valley bottom. The landlord was very communicative, and informed me that the boats navigating the Kita-kami could carry 150 to 200 koku, say 400 to 500 piculs, as far up at Kurosawa, and 50 koku, say 125 piculs, even up to Morioka. Thus from Kurosawa the passage to the sea occupied two days, and against the current with a fair
