DISCOVHin' 



321 



turtle ' ' and drowning in their sleep ! Such hardened 

 habitues will spend three or four weeks at a stretch, 

 practically with no break, in the water, and a case was 

 mentioned to me by a friend. Professor Chamberlain, 

 of the old caretaker of an inland spa who used to pass 

 the whole winter in the soothing waters of his own 

 particular spring. When my friend visited another 

 spring in the summer the inhabitants apologised for 

 their dirty condition ; " for," said they, " we are now 

 so busy that we are only able to get two baths a day. 



" How often, then, do you manage to bathe in 

 winter ? " he asked. 



" Oh, then we are not so busy and can have four or 

 five baths a day, and the children get into the hot water 

 whenever they feel cold. 



One spa I visited had a list of twenty-eight specific 

 diseases it could cure, beginning with brain disease and 

 ending with paralysis. The only complaint stated to be 

 incurable was the disease of love ! 



The obstacles in the way of inland transport in 

 Japan are indeed formidable, since three-quarters ul 

 the country's area is mountain land. There is this year 

 being celebrated the jubilee of the completion of tin 

 first railway, the stretch of eighteen miles betwci n 

 Tokyo and Yokohama, opened in 1871, but during 

 the intervening years no less than six thousand miles 

 have been added, and only those who are familiar 

 with the immense and varied natural difficulties met 

 with can adequately appreciate the greatness of this 

 achievement. In the Nakasendo portion of the 

 Central Railway — between Kyoto and Tokyo, one of 

 the most mountainous regions in the main island — 

 95 tunnels and 350 bridges had to be constructed. 

 And yet, in spite of the immense progress thus accom- 

 plished, there lie thousands of square miles of mountain- 

 land and forest sparsely populated or inhabited onh' 

 by a few charcoal-burners, fishermen, and wood-cutters, 

 whose means of transport and of intercommunica- 

 tion are of the simplest and often of the roughest 

 nature. Leaving behind the region of the rail and the 

 motor-car, we find ourselves committed to the un- 

 tender mercies of the native carriage known as the 

 basha, whose appearance is a cross between a hearse 

 and an ambulance wagon, while its behaviour on 

 the average country road, boulder-strewn and rutty, 

 deep in mud or dust, frequently suggests the prospect 

 of its employment in the capacity of one or other of 

 those conveyances. Under favourable conditions it can 

 cover four to five miles an hour. On mountain paths 

 inaccessible to the basha, baggage is transferred to the 

 back of the weedy and infrequent horse or to that of 

 the more sturdy ox, or, when neither of these is obtain- 

 able, to the shoulders of the peasant coolie whose simple 

 good-humour and friendly companionship is a very 

 attractive feature of one's wanderings away from the 



beaten tracks of modern Japan. The carrying capacity 

 of some of these is considerable, in spite of their small- 

 ness of stature and often slightness of build, although 

 it is often the young peasant girls whose feats of 

 porterage are most remarkable. I have met maidens 

 of fifteen or sixteen toihng up a steep mountain pass 

 under a load of logs over 100 lb. in weight. 



Another entertaining, and at times exciting, method 

 of transport, linking up the Tokaido Railway with the 

 pilgrim-routes further in the interior, is occasionally 

 encountered in the foot-hills near the broad-spread 

 base of Fuji-san. This is provided by the quaint one- 

 horse tramcar. The downward car always has the 

 right of way, a privilege its conductor exercises to the 

 full. Sometimes the ascending rival is hoisted bodily 

 off the rails, or the occupants of both change places. 

 On one occasion a freight car, laden with luggage, was 

 taken in charge by the conductor of that in which I 



■■YVB.\" (B.\TH HOISK) OF SHIR.\HOXE ONSKX IN THK 



NORTHERN JA1».\NESE ALl'S 



This onsen has been in the possession of the family whidi slill owns it for 



over 300 years. 



was travelling, whereupon he unyoked its labouring 

 horse, mounted the roof, and thus rode down in triumph 

 to the next siding, where he shunted it to await a 

 suitable opportunity for removal, and then resumed 

 his own proper command. Some years ago, for the 

 benefit of any possible European travellers, the follow- 



