A glimpse of the isles of the Pacific . worked all day, and hard work, too, carryingus up to the lake ten miles and back for thirty-seven and ahalf cents each. I mention this to show the very smallwages paid in Japan; we gave them each a tip in road is very rough and steep, and rises twenty-fivehundred feet in going the ten miles. These fellows, whosubsist on barley, with a little rice as a luxury, sometimes alittle fish (as they are one hundred miles from the sea),very seldom any meat, have good strong muscle and didtheir work cheerfully, laughing and chatting betweenthemselves m
A glimpse of the isles of the Pacific . worked all day, and hard work, too, carryingus up to the lake ten miles and back for thirty-seven and ahalf cents each. I mention this to show the very smallwages paid in Japan; we gave them each a tip in road is very rough and steep, and rises twenty-fivehundred feet in going the ten miles. These fellows, whosubsist on barley, with a little rice as a luxury, sometimes alittle fish (as they are one hundred miles from the sea),very seldom any meat, have good strong muscle and didtheir work cheerfully, laughing and chatting betweenthemselves most of the time. They were delighted to havesuch a good job. This Daiya-gawa valley above Nikko is impassible inwinter, on account of the heavy snows, which blockade thenarrow roadway. When winter comes, everybody desertsthese mountains and goes down the valley where it iswarmer. The coming of Spring and the tourist brings thenatives back to open up their tea-houses, carry sedanchairs and pull jinrikshas. The Aisho copper mines in 187. < <aiW c O a O these mountains are the most productive in Japan; theiroutput is 7000 tons smelted copper per year; they havebuilt a small tramway two feet wide down the valley, anduse oxen to haul the small cars on this track, bringing thecopper ingots, each weighing sixty-eight pounds, down toNikko for shipment, and hauling supplies back. The trip up this valley is one of the finest for beautifulscenery it has been my pleasure to see; it reminds me verymuch of the valleys between the Alps in not so wide and covered with rough rock, yet thecontinuous mountais peaks on either side, and the ever-present rushing, roaring stream of water, is much like theSwiss beautiful. Most of the distance, we wound along aroad near the stream, crossing it several times, passingmany pretty tea-houses on the way, where refreshment iswaiting for the traveler. When half way up, we stopped andtook tea and gave our hard-working chair carriers a s
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