Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/102



The route from Yokohama to Shanghai, a distance of about 850 miles, is down the coast of Nippon to Hiogo, which lies at the entrance of the famous Inland Sea; thence 250 miles through this wonderful straitwhich is rather a succession of inland lakes, connected by narrow channels, than a seato Nagasaki, where, leaving Japan, we strike across the Yellow Sea to the east coast of China.

A branch of the Pacific mail line makes three trips a month each way, and is composed of American-built steamers of the same style, but not so large, as the leviathans that cross the Pacific.

Hiogo, our first stopping place, is 350 miles from Yokohama by water, though but 200 by land, and is on the tokaido, or imperial road, which traverses the whole empire. It is one of the four treaty ports open to foreign trade, and is rapidly increasing in business and importance. Our steamer, the Costa Rica, came to anchor early in the morning in front of the town, and having the whole day to remain in port, we improve the time by visiting the places of interest in the vicinity. The town is built along the shore of a beautiful bay, with a background of mountains rising by a gradual slope nearly two thousand feet above the water. Several fresh water streams from this range flow down into the harbor, which the Japanese have availed themselves of for irrigating the rice lands, grain fields and garden patches in the rear of the town, and, for some distance up the mountain side. Seven miles up the steep path, and almost at the summit, is the