Page:TASJ-1-1-2.djvu/350

 of the daimio. It is a large place, in fact from the imperfect way I was enabled to judge in the dark, I should take it to be of greater extent than any town I have been in in Japan, save Yedo and Osaka, though the population is stated at only 21,000. I noticed several good stores principally devoted to the sale of foreign imported goods. There are many bird fanciers’ shops.

I was informed that the nearest part of the coast lay at a distance of three ri: that Sabusawa—which is on an island, but is the nearest available port—is seven ri. Rice in large quantities is shipped hence to Yedo, being the bulk of the produce of the country. Hemp is largely grown, Sendai being renowned for its fishing nets. Silk, tobacco, and many of the other ordinary products of Japan are produced, so that whichever of the ports of Sabusawa, Ishibama, or Ishinomaki in Sendai Bay shall be opened to foreign trade, will without doubt become an important place. Doubtless a short line of railway or tramway will be required to connect the port with the producing districts. Indeed, such feeders for ports will become necessary in many parts of Japan, for being a mountainous country, the building of trunk lines would be ruinously expensive, and the sooner such ideas are given up by the government the better. It may answer the interests of certain persons to advocate such schemes, and may please the vanity of some of the rulers of the country, while suiting the pockets of those connected with such undertakings; but what real business would accrue from the enormous outlay is another question.

On the 1st November we made a late start—as is unavoidable at a town—making three short stages North-East and North, stopping for dinner at a large village called Yoshioka, distant 5$1⁄2$ ri. The rain during the night had fallen as snow on the mountains. At the outskirts of Sendai we passed through a collection of potteries, where are manufactured the coarser kinds of jars and pans. The Kaido—hardly deserving that name—runs for a great part over a broken country, the uplands of which are mostly scrub-covered, with pine trees dotted about. The