20 



iiifcriitr to tliiit nl tin- iiiiiinliv ilimijjlcn. Tin; MiitfU- aiul Sii^ji tnt-siiio vi-ry ofU-ii 

 met witli ill liir^e iiiul ln^iuliriil »jRviiiiciiK. liiit aUivu itll tlio (u;1iIm uoiitiiiniii;; 

 Ixirley, wln-iit, liiickwhwit, tlio viirimis kiiuls ot' inillot, U^iiti, Siit<»-iin(l Sitmimi- 

 lMitntt)es tuitl (itlior vi'f^cljiblus an.- very fertilf hikI coiitriltiite in ii liifjli «li'^rw to 

 tlie iilinost luxiiiiiiiit rro|is wliicli Ja|>iiii ••iijoyti in spih' »f it.t siii<^ilar ami, iw a 

 rational nt^ronoinist on^^lit to sny, not (|iiitc currix-t t(yst4.-n) of liiisUmdry. Iiiduuil 

 (•xix'i>t that t\\\itv corrtft ithii of conliniiif^ tlic riiv -fanning to the low (;ronn<tii, 

 wliicli is said to U' a divine sufij^i'stion, the author nnist eonfow to have »•«•n 

 nothing pniiseworthy in the ai^riciiltnral system of the Jaiancso, although luneli 

 that deserves praisu in the /.eul and s^kill evhiliited by thu wurknien tlioiiuiclvt«. 

 It may Ik' sjifely said that even this diligence and inihistrial clevenieiw of the 

 lanning iK-opIe would not snni<-e to provide them with gi«»d cr<i|w if tlic! soil 

 was not fertile in itself Among those sorts of soil which are to he highly 

 valued, the ujiper diluvial soil is one of the liest and at the sunie time one of the 

 most widely spawl, a» it covers a very large |>ortion of the Tokio plain. Valnahle, 

 however, :us this soil is in rcsf>eet to farming, it is nither unfavorable to civil 

 I'ngineering; and to a gn-at |>art the very bad state of the roads of the environs 

 of Tokio is due to the same cause. Indeed it is surprising to see, in the very 

 neighbourhood of a capital of the largeness and im|Mirtancc of T(jkio, the roiuis 

 s<i bad and, T may say, so primitively constnieled that any large nxinfall, any 

 thaw in winter imvariabiy makes them nearly impaK-^^ible. This woulil, |MTha|>8, 

 not lie the case, if the roads did not cross, in the Tokio- plain, very often and for 

 long distances tlie sandy clay of the up|H'r diluvial formation, which is im|H.'rviou8 

 to water. In dry weather, the roads made o|' this soil are tolenible, and so thu 

 inhabitants are led to believe erroneously that the rua<ls an- not very Ihm! and that 

 the weather is the cause of thotse disiusters and hindnmees in tmvelling wliich — a» 

 is well worthy of notice — occur not only in sideroiyls, but in the mf»st inifiortiint 

 high roiuls. lufleed some of the governors of |irovinces and districts e-^invially in 

 the north of Tokio have Ijegun to improve the ro:iils [».irtly by digging out ditches 

 and moats for drainage and to correct the roa<l itself by the aiUlition of gravel 

 an<l iM'bbles or fnigmeiits of stones. I'ut even such primitive improvements an; 

 far from lieing frecpiently niade, an<l wherever they are not, the roails on the 

 higli-level plain between the valleys are equally ImmI with those on the embank- 

 ments between the rice-fields or on the small dikes crossing the low gniuniis or 

 running along the river-lianks. 



The lower |Kirt of the diluvial fonnation is pnictiiailly fur less im|iortant, 

 though it has, as a rule, a much griMiter thickness. It may lieaddetl also that it 

 varies much more lithologiailly and contains either impure conglomemte or sand 

 or clay, and sometimes even an a<lmixture of tufaceous |)arts. Very »<.;ldora, 

 however, is it uniform in its tofcility, for we very often see the inferior part of it 

 to lie clayish whilst the upjR-r part is formed of conglomemte. As a rule, we 

 may say that conglomenites predominate. In many phu-i.« we see G — S meters 

 tilleil up eutin-ly by them and it is very stldom that tin _. are entin;Iy wanting. 



