The economic and historical backgrounds of a city have a direct bearing on its development. Structure, type and functions of a city in the old agricultural countries of the Orient, are quite different from those of a city in the industrial and commercial countries in Europe and America. In Europe or America a place with a population of 2, 000 can well be a city. However, in China where big villages can often be found in the country such a standard does not fit, and a village with as many inhabitants as over 5, 000 can still be a village. The same is true in Taiwan (Formosa). Therefore, to use population as the sole criterion to ascertain the status of a place, whether a town or a village is highly irrelevant.
The urbanization in Formosa can be classified into two groups. Those of larger size are called cities, such as Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, etc. those of smaller size, rural towns, such as Tamsui, Fungyuan, Huwei, Fungshan, etc. In this classification, there are altogether 12 cities and 88 towns in Formosa. Classified population statistics of these cities and towns are, however, unavailable to date, not to mention any scientific study and analysis of such statistics. As demarcated by the government for administrative purpose, there are now in Formosa five cities which are under the direct control of the Provincial Government. They are Taipei, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. And there are six cities under the jurisdiction of hsien governments, namely, Hsinchu, Changhua, Chiayi, Pingtung, Ilan, and Hualien. Most of these Provincial and Hsien cities possess, as their limits dictate, big stretches of lands which are, for a great part, still farm lands. The real built-up areas in these cities occupy but a small fraction of the total terrtiory. Consequently, the population statistics of these cities which are officially released by the government do not in effect represent a true picture of the population of the built-up area of these cities. Take Taichung for example the area of Taichung City is nominally as large as 165 square kilometers, and within it dwells a populaiton of 211, 200. As a matter of fact, however, the built-up area of the city covers only a very small part of it, lese than 10 square kilometers in size, and with a population of 148, 970. Indiscriminative reference of such statistics is bound to fail the purpose for which they were originally intended.
This Institute of Agricultural Geography has, during the past few years shown much interest in the study of demographical geography of Formosa. The author recorded whatever he observed on this subject during his several islandwide tours of inspecton of land utilization of Formosa, which fami-liarized himself with every corner of the island. Furthermore, this Institute has mede a detailed study of several leading cities of Formosa. From February to May 1952, the author leading a group of assistants and students again visited every rural town in North Formosa to make a better and closer observation of them. At the end of June, we mailed over 100 copies of some survey forms to all the governments or administrative centers of these towns for them to fill out and mail back.

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I. the River Yura rises from Mikunigatake located in the north of the tableland of Tamba, and flowing through the Fukuchiyama basin, it empties itself into Wakasa Bay. This river has often flooded and given a great damage all over the valley of the river; of which cause lies in the facts that the River Yura suddenly slows down after entering into the Fukuchiyama basin, and that the said basin is narrow and limitted in its west northern extremity. Passing the basin, however, the lower courses of the stream become gentle, and enable a river-boat navigate. For this reason, the River Yura offered great facilities for water transport especially from the 17th Century till the 20th Century, and played an important part as the transporting route of goods between the Fukuchiyama basin, and the Japan Sea side and the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe district.
II. That the River became actively navigable was after the birth of a new route, in 1672, which led to Osaka starting from the Japan Sea coast and passing through the Kammon Channel and the Inland Sea of Seto. The port Yuraminato was established by the aid of various goods both produced in the basin and transported through the above-mentioned new route. The function of a downward-bound boat was mainly to carry rice which was a tributary payment to a feudal lord, and besides this, wheat, konnyakudama (a tuberous root of the devil's tongue), cotton and others. Salt was a leading material among the goods carried by an upward-bound boat, and followed this the finny tribe, oil-cakes and stone. The salt was landed at Fukuchiyama, and by horses supplied to the circumference of the basin. After streaming up the Piver Yura, the silk fabrics produced in the Tango district were transported to Kyoto, Osaka and neighbourhood by land carriage.
III. It was a river-boat (20-50 koku capacity) that contributed much to the water-borne commuication of the River Yura. More than three hundred of it used to sail up and down the stream. There was a ship-stocks system in those days. Namely, each owner of these boats payed a regular amount of money to the lord of a manor, and grew up under the patronage of the lord. The owner had an exclusive right to transport general commodities.
IV. After the Railway, Sanin line, was opened to traffic at the last stage of the 19th Century, the River Yura nearly lost value as a river traffic route, owing to the restriction of location.

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In the fishing settlements on the Kujukurihama coast, Chiba prefecture, there are many people who are engaged in an itinerant trade of raw fish by bicycle. Formerly, they used to peddle carrying the loads on the shoulder, but bicycles came to be used about thirty years ago and it widened the field of their activity. A bicycle being a handy means of communication, the number of such peddlers as above-mentioned has increased year after year, especially since the end of the World War II.
Recently, fishery on the Kujukurihama coast has been at a very low ebb. It is not so unusual for the fishermen there to make no catch at all throughout the day; and naturally they find it difficult to live. However, with the complete equipment of roads in recent years, and the fish marckets in Tokyo being only 80-110 kilometres from the villages, these peddlers came to deal with not only the fish caught on the Kujukurihama coast but those carried from Tokyo in a truck (they can buy fish from Tokyo constantly in this way). Accordingly, to peddle is a surer means of living than to be engaged in fishery. This is the very reason why bicycle peddling has become so active in this area after the end of the war.
Leaving their own villages early in the morning with 25-55 kilogrammes of raw fish on the bicycle, these peddlers go to inland agricultural districts to sell the fish and come home in the afternoon. The longest distance they can reach to peddle fish is about twenty kilometres, and they hardly go farther. In winter, they can go farther than they do in summer, because it is rather easy to keep the freshness of fish in a cold season.

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