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valled for beauty" and "hardly surpassed in any land."

There are many beautiful waterfalls, such as Kegon, Urami, and others in the Nikkō district, Nunobiki at Kōbe, Nachi in Kii, etc.

There are numerous rivers, short and swift; and it is these streams, which, after a rainy season, swelling and rushing impetuously down from the mountains, overflow their sandy banks and cause annually a terrible destruction of life and property. The most important rivers are the Tone, the Shinano, the Kiso, the Kitakami, the Tenryū, in the main island, and the Ishikari in Yezo. The last is the longest (about 400 miles); the next is the Shinano (almost 250 miles); but no other river comes up even to 200 miles in length. The Tenryū-gawa[1] is famous for its rapids. Some of these rivers are navigable by small steamers.

Japan, with its long and irregular coast line, is particularly rich in bays and harbors, both natural and artificial, which furnish shelter for the shipping of all kinds. The "open ports," which formerly numbered only 6 (Nagasaki, Yokohama, Hakodate, Ōsaka, Kōbe, Niigata), have reached the figure 36; and the growing foreign commerce annually demands further enlargement. Of the old ports, Niigata is of no special importance in foreign commerce; but, of the new ports, Kuchinotsu in Kyūshiu, Muroran in Yezo (Hokkaidō), and especially Bakan and Moji,

  1. ↑ Kawa, or gawa in composition, means "river."
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