The Day Before Yesterday, In Spite Of Severe Pain, Was One Of The
Most Interesting Of My Journey.
As I learned something of the
force of fire in Hawaii, I am learning not a little of the force of
water in Japan.
We left Shirasawa at noon, as it looked likely to
clear, taking two horses and three men. It is beautiful scenery - a
wild valley, upon which a number of lateral ridges descend,
rendered strikingly picturesque by the dark pyramidal cryptomeria,
which are truly the glory of Japan. Five of the fords were deep
and rapid, and the entrance on them difficult, as the sloping
descents were all carried away, leaving steep banks, which had to
be levelled by the mattocks of the mago. Then the fords themselves
were gone; there were shallows where there had been depths, and
depths where there had been shallows; new channels were carved, and
great beds of shingle had been thrown up. Much wreckage lay about.
The road and its small bridges were all gone, trees torn up by the
roots or snapped short off by being struck by heavy logs were
heaped together like barricades, leaves and even bark being in many
cases stripped completely off; great logs floated down the river in
such numbers and with such force that we had to wait half an hour
in one place to secure a safe crossing; hollows were filled with
liquid mud, boulders of great size were piled into embankments,
causing perilous alterations in the course of the river; a fertile
valley had been utterly destroyed, and the men said they could
hardly find their way.
At the end of five miles it became impassable for horses, and, with
two of the mago carrying the baggage, we set off, wading through
water and climbing along the side of a hill, up to our knees in
soft wet soil. The hillside and the road were both gone, and there
were heavy landslips along the whole valley. Happily there was not
much of this exhausting work, for, just as higher and darker
ranges, densely wooded with cryptomeria, began to close us in, we
emerged upon a fine new road, broad enough for a carriage, which,
after crossing two ravines on fine bridges, plunges into the depths
of a magnificent forest, and then by a long series of fine zigzags
of easy gradients ascends the pass of Yadate, on the top of which,
in a deep sandstone cutting, is a handsome obelisk marking the
boundary between Akita and Aomori ken. This is a marvellous road
for Japan, it is so well graded and built up, and logs for
travellers' rests are placed at convenient distances. Some very
heavy work in grading and blasting has been done upon it, but there
are only four miles of it, with wretched bridle tracks at each end.
I left the others behind, and strolled on alone over the top of the
pass and down the other side, where the road is blasted out of rock
of a vivid pink and green colour, looking brilliant under the
trickle of water. I admire this pass more than anything I have
seen in Japan; I even long to see it again, but under a bright blue
sky. It reminds me much of the finest part of the Brunig Pass, and
something of some of the passes in the Rocky Mountains, but the
trees are far finer than in either. It was lonely, stately, dark,
solemn; its huge cryptomeria, straight as masts, sent their tall
spires far aloft in search of light; the ferns, which love damp and
shady places, were the only undergrowth; the trees flung their
balsamy, aromatic scent liberally upon the air, and, in the
unlighted depths of many a ravine and hollow, clear bright torrents
leapt and tumbled, drowning with their thundering bass the musical
treble of the lighter streams. Not a traveller disturbed the
solitude with his sandalled footfall; there was neither song of
bird nor hum of insect.
In the midst of this sublime scenery, and at the very top of the
pass, the rain, which had been light but steady during the whole
day, began to come down in streams and then in sheets. I have been
so rained upon for weeks that at first I took little notice of it,
but very soon changes occurred before my eyes which concentrated my
attention upon it. The rush of waters was heard everywhere, trees
of great size slid down, breaking others in their fall; rocks were
rent and carried away trees in their descent, the waters rose
before our eyes; with a boom and roar as of an earthquake a
hillside burst, and half the hill, with a noble forest of
cryptomeria, was projected outwards, and the trees, with the land
on which they grew, went down heads foremost, diverting a river
from its course, and where the forest-covered hillside had been
there was a great scar, out of which a torrent burst at high
pressure, which in half an hour carved for itself a deep ravine,
and carried into the valley below an avalanche of stones and sand.
Another hillside descended less abruptly, and its noble groves
found themselves at the bottom in a perpendicular position, and
will doubtless survive their transplantation. Actually, before my
eyes, this fine new road was torn away by hastily improvised
torrents, or blocked by landslips in several places, and a little
lower, in one moment, a hundred yards of it disappeared, and with
them a fine bridge, which was deposited aslant across the torrent
lower down.
On the descent, when things began to look very bad, and the
mountain-sides had become cascades bringing trees, logs, and rocks
down with them, we were fortunate enough to meet with two pack-
horses whose leaders were ignorant of the impassability of the road
to Odate, and they and my coolies exchanged loads. These were
strong horses, and the mago were skilful and courageous.
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