way as during the ascent, but afterwards held off to the
right, down a much steeper and more difficult path than we had
traversed before. The mountain side had here a slope of nearly
forty-five degrees, and consisted of a quite loose volcanic sand,
not bound together by any vegetable carpet. It would therefore have
been scarcely possible to ascend to the summit of the mountain this
way, but we went rapidly downwards, often at a dizzy speed, but
without other inconvenience than that one now and then fell flat and
rolled head-foremost down the steep slopes, and that our shoes were
completely torn to tatters by the angular lava gravel. Above the
mountaintop the sky was clear of clouds, but between it and the
surface of the earth there spread out a thick layer of cloud which
seen from above resembled a boundless storm-tossed sea, full of
foaming breakers. The extensive view we would otherwise have had of
the neighbouring mountain ridges from the top of Asamayama was thus
concealed. Only here and there an opening was formed in the cloud,
resembling a sun-spot, through which we got a glimpse of the
underlying landscape. When we came to the foot of the mountain we
long followed a ridge, covered with greenery, formed of an immense
stream of lava, which had issued from an opening in the mountain
side now refilled. This had probably taken place during the
tremendous eruption of 1783, when not only enormous lava-streams
destroyed forests and villages at the foot of the mountain, but the
whole of the neighbouring region between Oiwake and Usui-toge,
previously fertile, was changed by an ash-rain into an extensive
waste. Across this large plain, infertile and little cultivated,
situated at a height of 980 metres above the sea, we went without a
guide to the village Oiwake, where we lodged for the night at an inn
by the side of the road Nakasendo, one of the cleanest and best kept
of the many well-kept inns I saw during our journey in the interior
of the country.

Hence I sent a messenger on foot to Takasaki to order a carriage to
Tokio. A former _samurai_ undertook for a payment of three _yen_,
(about 12_s_) to carry the message. Oiwake is indeed situated on the
great road Nakasendo, but it can here only with difficulty be
traversed by carriages, because between this village and Takasaki it
is necessary to go over the pass Usui-toge, where the road, though
lowered considerably of late, rises to a height of 1200 metres. We
therefo