making than Shiōtsu. The last two days of the year are always devoted in Japan to settling up one's affairs, and this sometimes means serious business. As one of my interpreters in after days explained, "It is very sad for poor people,”—here he laughed gaily ;—" they throw themselves into river or well, or die hanging down from tree, and there are many robbers who wish to get money." However this may be, once the 31st of December is past, universal jollity seems to reign, and visiting, kite-flying, and battledore and shuttlecock occupy old and young of both sexes. I confess we found it dull, though we cruised about the bay, and went after such game as the country afforded, and were glad when the day came on which we had decided to leave Tsuruga and its delights.

We returned to Shiōtsu to Shiōtsŭ over the short route between Hikida and the "cross roads," the route lying south-west from Hikida about a mile, up a rapidly rising valley between high hills, when the road turns into a narrow and tortuous gorge, and a very steep pull up a zigzag road conducts to the summit. A good view is obtainable to the westward over the valley we had left, with its foaming stream and winding road, leading to another port on the lake-Kaidzu, at the bottom of the deep bight behind Benten.

The road was crowded with pack-horses, mostly carrying the same odoriferous load we had already made acquaintance with, each horse led by a man, who also carried a sack on his back and appeared to like it. About a mile south of the summit we came to a place where the loads were shifted, the pack-horses returning

to Tsuruga, and the load going forward upon twowheeled trucks. These are propelled in the following manner :-A-head go the mother and the eldest son, hauling on ropes; the father of the family, or the strongest of the lot at any rate, pushes upon a transverse bar fixed to the front of the frame; and behind small boys and girls shove lustily at the truck, the sacks, or wherever they can lay a hand, all working like steamengines and looking as hard as nails.

The six miles of road from this place, Hŭkasaka, take it out of the whole party, however, before they get through, for the road is a vile one, constructed on the fine old native fashion, of stones of any shapes and sizes that can be picked up handy, chucked into the worst of the pre-existing holes, and levelled with loose earth and sand. Such a road is a succession of holes from one end to the other, separated only by the largest stones, over which the wheels have to be lifted, hauled, twisted, wrenched, slewed, or otherwise forced every yard of the way. The wheels are not above two inches wide in the rim, so wherever there is a gap down they go and jam, till, by swaying the whole truck bodily from side to side, the stones are forced apart, leaving a new hole for the next comer. The amount of work required on a level road of this description, is rather more than double what it would be on a rough up-hill road of any other kind.

To go up-hill with a load is almost impracticable; but here the bulk of the traffic is all down-hill, and goods going north are carried on pack-horses, the trucks going up from Shiōtsŭ light.

We had left instructions at Shiōtsu for the people to

look up suitable quarters for us, and on our return were at once inducted into a portion of the priests' house adjoining the Buddhist temple; a poor place indeed, but the best to be found, having a look-out upon a neat little private garden under the hill. Here we rigged up an American stove, and got some glass inserted into the sliding shutters, and made out for a while, starting our survey work by running base lines southward from Shiōtsů.

Our friend the experienced native surveyor gave us up as soon as we set to work, and returned to Kiyōto. He had not been of much assistance to us, as he was not an accomplished linguist, and did not seem on good terms with the interpreter. We used to speculate upon his reason for wearing so many suits of clothes, making out at last that it must be for the sake of the sleevepockets, in which he carried a specimen of every known description of instrument for measuring distances and taking observations. Had we travelled much at night we should have had no hesitation in asking him for a celestial globe, a fifteen-inch refracting astronomical telescope, or an oxy-hýdrogen illuminating apparatus. He would merely have sighed, twisted himself into another pocket or two, and produced the article required.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST YEAR'S WORK: TSURUGA, SHIŌTSŬ, AND
NAGAHAMA (1874).

Now that we were actually at work, a minute chronicle of our daily life became out of the question. When one is travelling, the regular notes are easily made, and may be worth keeping-names of places, heights of barometer and thermometer, distances, times, weather, obstacles, and so on; but when stationary, such details as have to be recorded become little more interesting than a book of logarithms-useful for reference on occasion, but mere weariness in compilation and unattractive, to say the least, to the general reader. To us, the field work we had to do was interesting in itself, though it would be too much to hope that the arcana of mountain surveying could by any explanation be so unfolded to those not already educated in professional technicalities, as to make plain our reasons for rejoicing at the accomplishment of the successive steps, by which we reduced to order and planned upon paper the main ridges, valleys, gullies, obstacles, and other features of the country, and produced a first proposal for a route, to be laid before our Chief in due course.

We were three after the middle of January; and while I remain always I, it is convenient to have done with descriptive epithets, and call my first companion simply Tom, and the new-comer James. Other Toms and Jameses indeed there were, but not of my party, in the season of 1874; so let that pass. We were all three pretty much of an age, just terminating our lusty youth. Tom, the absolute senior among us, had seen many lands, and, as he used to say himself, if all he had seen and done were put into a book, no one would believe it. James had experience of India and Australia, while I had the advantage of no previous work abroad. When James arrived from the settlement, he handed me a bundle of papers from the Chief AssistantEngineer, and we then perceived how ingeniously we had been sold by our friends at head-quarters. Our arrangements for comfort up country had all been made under the regulations in force for 1873, no hint of any alteration as being contemplated reaching us. But it had been decided that from the beginning of 1874, that is when we were safely out of sight, the department would cease to supply anything for private use, except an allowance in money, reducible if we stopped more than fourteen days in any one place. So the Chief Assistant gave me to understand that the articles ordered by the department for our use had been. countermanded, and we might make our own arrangements for the future.

When I explained this to Tom-James, who knew it all before starting, but had taken no steps in the matter without consulting me, grinning sardonically the