Even more beautiful are the vol-jeanie peaks and lakes of the wild 'Akan National Park, newly opened to the public. Here' one might well Imagine oneself in Switzerland or even the American Rockies, for the outstanding features of this district, In the wildest and extreme northeastern part of Hokkaid: are high snow-capped peaks, For there who do not mind routh Jaccommodation, Akan Park is well worth a visit since It eaters to all fastes. Botanists will find rare plants and Alpine flowers: walkers follow endless trails through the woods: skiers and skaters may enjoy clear ice and. perilous slopes: sportsmen can stil! shoot bear and fishermen catch salmon trout in plenty; Dut company there Is none, except for a few Ainus living in miserable flints on the shores of the Takes.
Far removal from civilization, pushed back into this fast wilder ness, these gentle aborigines eke out miserable livelihood by hunting and fishing. One hears them morning and evening singing their mournful songs as they Taunch their—boats—the pathetic laments which a Japanese writer describes as "suggestive of the racial extinction of which they are the brink."
Perhaps the greatest of all the contrasts which give one such a thrill }when travelling through Hokkaido is the abrupt transition from a wilderness like Akan, to Sapporo, with its fine foreign hotel, its. neighbouring orchards cultivated according to the most modern methods, and its Government experimental farms.
As far back 25 1868, the first of these farms was started under American management. Nowadays there fare several entirely run by the Japanese themselves. The magnificent] horse-breeding establishment has im: ported Anglo-Norman and Percheron sires which are hired out to the farmers to improve the local breed. These stains "are kept "In Gne modern stables, each with a window in his stall and a private paddock opening off it. No mares or foals were to be seen, but the oversee: explained to us that "the ladies and children are absent now on the hillside pastures:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.