308 B. KOTO : CAUSE OF THE GREAT 



Although the story of the wide marsh seems to be n ofrent 

 exaggeration, still we see in it some germ of truth ; for, if all the 

 artificial canals and dams were to he removed, tlie present fertile 

 land would in a moment he nothing better than a moor. It is these 

 dams and the drninage system that suffered the greatest damage by 

 the last earthquake, so thüt to reconstruct them in their former state 

 will cost the people an almost incredible sum. The length of embank- 

 ment and mont, surveyed officinlly for repnir. is not less thnn 510,5 

 kilometres. 



There are strong reasons for believing thnt the low-lying tracts 

 experienced the shocks to the greatest degree, not that they were at 

 the epicentrum of the earthquake, but liecause of the s;mdy nature of 

 the ground. The soil wliich makes u]) the greater jMirt of the paddy- 

 land, especially the eastern, severely damaged 1)y the last earthquake, 

 consists of loose, incoherent, fine sand ^vith but little clayey matter. 

 This soil T consider to have been formed out of the sediment of the 

 Kiso-gawa. 



The rivers, Nagara and Ibi, take their origin high up in the 

 Palœozoic mountains of the northern border, and the rocks u])on which 

 they exert their denuding action are sandstones, hornstones, and 

 clayslates. The sediments are therefore more or less clayey and heavy. 

 The land formed from tlie silt of these rivers occupies the western part 

 of the plain, through which they make their way to the sea ; and this 

 is the seat of least damage by the late sulvterranean convulsion. 



The North of Mino, as already briefly stated, is a mountainous 

 district, consisting mainly of Palaeozoic fn-mations. A cordillera 

 runs from south-west to east, and then north-east, proceeding di- 

 rectly through the province of Hid;i to the volcanic group of Hakusan 

 of Kaga, the Japanese Alps (Pis. XXIX., and XXX.). It is the main 

 divide which separates the river-systems of the Pacific and the Japan 



