Our travellers kept on this day and the next (Sunday, March 11) through the mountainous country of Hakone, which runs out southward from the broad peninsula of Izu. At a village, hemmed in between a lake and a mountain, the lake itself surrounded in every other direction by mountains not to be climbed, was a narrow pass—another imperial searching-place, where all persons travelling to, and especially from, Yedo must submit to a rigorous examination. Upon the shore of this lake were five small wooden chapels, and in each a priest seated, beating a gong and howling a namida [abbreviation of Namamidabutsu]. “All the Japanese foot-travellers of our retinue,” says Kämpfer, “threw them some kasses into the chapel, and in return received each a paper, which they carried, bareheaded, with great respect, to the shore, in order to throw it into the lake, having first tied a stone to it, that it might be sure to go to the bottom, which they believe is the purgatory for children who die before seven years of age. They are told so by their priests, who, for their comfort, assure them that as soon as the water washes off the names and characters of the gods and saints, written upon the papers above mentioned, the children at the bottom feel great relief, if they do not obtain a full and effectual redemption.” This lake has but one outlet, falling over the mountains in a cataract, and running down through a craggy and precipitous valley, along which the road is carried on a very steep descent to the mouth of the river in the bay of Yedo. Here, on a plain four miles in width, was found the town of Odawara, containing about a thousand small houses, very neatly built, and evidently inhabited by a better class of people; but the empty shops evinced no great activity of trade or manufactures. The castle and residence of the prince, as well as the temples, were on the north side, in the ascent of the mountains. The next day (Monday, March 12), the road following the northwest shore of the outer bay of Yedo crossed several very rapid streams, till at length the mountains on their left disappeared, and a broad plain spread out extending to Yedo. Off the shore was seen the island of Kamakura,[23] with high and rugged shores, but of which the surface was flat and wooded. It was not above four miles in circumference, and was used, like several other islands, as a place of confinement for disgraced noblemen. There being no landing-place, the boats that bring prisoners or provisions must be hauled up and let down by a crane. After a time the road left the shore, crossing a promontory which separates the outer from the inner bay of Yedo; but by sunset the shore of the inner bay was struck.