For A Considerable Part Of
The Way To Mori There Is No Track At All, Though There Is A Good
Deal Of Travel.
One makes one's way fatiguingly along soft sea
sand or coarse shingle close to the sea, or absolutely in it, under
cliffs of hardened clay or yellow conglomerate, fording many small
streams, several of which have cut their way deeply through a
stratum of black volcanic sand.
I have crossed about 100 rivers
and streams on the Yezo coast, and all the larger ones are marked
by a most noticeable peculiarity, i.e. that on nearing the sea they
turn south, and run for some distance parallel with it, before they
succeed in finding an exit through the bank of sand and shingle
which forms the beach and blocks their progress.
On the way I saw two Ainos land through the surf in a canoe, in
which they had paddled for nearly 100 miles. A river canoe is dug
out of a single log, and two men can fashion one in five days; but
on examining this one, which was twenty-five feet long, I found
that it consisted of two halves, laced together with very strong
bark fibre for their whole length, and with high sides also laced
on. They consider that they are stronger for rough sea and surf
work when made in two parts. Their bark-fibre rope is beautifully
made, and they twist it of all sizes, from twine up to a nine-inch
hawser.
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