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386
EAST ASIA
HYDROGRAPHIC SYSTEM CHIEF RIVERS.
Owing to the narrowness of the land, which is nowhere 200 miles wide, and to
the extremely mountainous character of its surface, no room is left for the develop-
ment of large streams. The rivers, which are numerous enough, especially in
Yeso and Hondo, in fact, resemble mountain torrents, with short and rapid courses,
and, in their lower reaches, subject to sudden and disastrous inundations. They are
consequently more damaging than beneficial even for irrigation purposes. To
navigation they are not merely useless, but a positive hindrance, in consequence
of the large quantities of sedimentary matter which they wash down, and by which
several of the best harbours in the archipelago have already been choked up.
Such has especially been the fate of Osaka and Nihi-gata harbours on the east and
west sides of Nip-pon, which were formerly accessible to the largest vessels, but
which can now be approached only by small craft. In Japan " a river-bed is a
waste of sand, boulders and shingle, through the middle of which, among sand-
banks and shallows, the river proper takes its devious course. In the freshets which
occur to a greater or less extent every year, enormous volumes of water pour over
these wastes, carrying sand and detritus down to the mouths, which are all ob-
structed by bars. Of these rivers the Shinano, being the biggest, is the most refractory,
and has piled up a bar at its entrance through which there is only a
passage 7 feet deep, which is perpetually shallowing." *
Subjoined is a table t of all the Japanese rivers, which have a total course of more
than 50 miles :
Name.