The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

TRAVELLING BY JIN-RIKI-SHA. Ill
from yokoliama to Gdiwara. I had three men to draw the carriage, and
the journey was made in twelve hoiirs, with three halts of fifteen minutes
each. You could not have done better tlian this with a liorse and carriage
in place of the man-power vehicle. On another occasion I went from
Osaka to Nara, a distance of thirty miles, between ten in tlie morning and
five in the afternoon, and halted an hour for lunch at a Japanese inn on
the road. Part of the way the road was through fields, where it was nec-
essary to go slowl}^, and quite frecpiently the men were obliged to lift the
vehicle over water-courses and gullies, and a good deal of time was lost by
these detentions."
Both the boys declared that the travel under such circumstances was
excellent, and that it was fully up to what the average horse could accom-
plish in America.
JAPANliSE ON FOOT.
" The next day," said the Doctor, " I went on from K"ara to Kioto,
which was another thirty miles, in about the same time and with a similar
halt for dinner. I had the same men as on tlie day before, and they raced
merrily along without the least sign of fatigue, although there was a pour-
ing rain all day that made the roads very heavy. Frequently there were
steep little hills to ascend where the I'oad passed over the water-courses or
canals. You will find, as you travel in Japan, that the canals are above
the general level of the countiy, in order to afford tlie proper fall for irri-
gation. Where the road crosses one of these canals, tliere is a sharp rise
on one side, and an equally sliarp descent on the other. You can manage
the descent, but the rise is difiicult. In the present instance the rain liad
softened the road, and made the pulling very hard indeed ;
and, to add to
the trouble, I had injured my foot and was unable to walk, so that I could
not lighten the burden of the men by getting out of the carriage at the
bad places.