The writer once classified cities and towns by measuring the number of commercial employees, and assumed the hierarchy system of urban settlement in Tohoku district (1955, Ann. Tohoku Geogr. Assoc.). Suplemental informations concerning to their practical activities were given in this paper.
(1) Viewed from service activities, the classes denoted in the previous paper are correlated as follows.
I, II: (O class service center), fully equipped with all kinds of activities (found in Japanese Statistical Classification of Industries —minor rank—), for exmaple, department store.
III: (A class serivce center), well balanced development of services and commerce (including retials of durable goods and wholesale of nondurable goods).
III-VI, IV'; (B class service center), equipped with commerce of C class order and with some attributive services which contribute to regional productions.)
IV: (C class center) equipped with retails of non-durable goods.
(2) Viewed from regionalism system (for exmaple, hierarchy of governmetnal system), key formation is as follows.
O class serivce center; types of seat of prefectural Government.
A class seerivice center; divided into two types of regionalism center,
A class regionalism center and B class (whose institutes are commanded by A class institutes).
B class service center; consists of various ranks of regionalism centers (not in accordance to the scales of service activities).
C class service center; having no signfiicance as regionalism center.
(3) The combination of these two systems of hierarchy is schematized as Fig. 4 in p. 8.
The regionalism center is often unconformable to the scales of commercial activities but show the influence of former “Gun”-Government system.

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Along the Suttsu bay on the west coast of Oshima peninsula, Hokkaido, there are three marine terraces: namely Homme Terrace (120-80m), Suttsu Terrace (60-25m), and Yaoi Terrace (7-5m). The surfaces of bed-rocks underlying the Suttsu terraces are irregular in various ways. The author came to a conclusion that these irregularities were mainly due to crustal movements such as faulting and anticlinal formation. The faults run parallel to the Oshamambe Lowland.
From the analysis of the terrace deposits, the author identified the direction of the ancient beach drift. He also worked out the nature of the ancient climate in the Suttsu bay area, based on the plant fossil and the pollen analysis. The date of the Suttsu Terrace may be correlated to the Riss-Würm Inter-Glacial Stage in Europe.

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The geomorphic development of the Kaminoyama Basin to the south of the Yamagata Basin, was under the control of the deposition of mud-flows, derived from the western slopes of Zao Volcanic Group. The author investigated the relationships between the deposition of mud-flows and the geomorphic development in the Basin, based on analysis of landforms and underground geology by columnar profiles of many boring wells.
It is summarised as follows:
1) The base rocks lie 155 meter below s. l. in the central part of the Kaminoyama Basin 175 meter or more below s. l. in the Kanagame Gorge and about 200 meter below s. l. in the southern part of the Yamagata Basin. Therefore, the basin bottom of the Kaminoyama Basin is continuous to that of the Yamagata Basin.
2) The basin deposits consist of four layers of gravels (the I, II, III, IV-layers), making alternate stratum with bluish cleyey layers. On the other hand, the mud-flow deposit in the Kanagame Gorge are classified into five layers (the A, B, C, D, E-layers). Each of the lowest depth of mud-flow layers corresponds with the lowest one of the bluish clayey layers in the Basin. Therefore, the bluish clayey layers are lacustrine deposits in the dammed lakes, formed by the deposition of repeated mud-flows.
3) The mud-flow landforms in the Kanagame Gorge are divided into three—the Sukawa, Ashinokuchi and Kanagame mud-flows. Correlating those mud-flow landforms to the mud-flow deposits above-mentioned and the lake terraces in the northern part of the Basin, the Sukawa mud-flow coincides with the B-layer and the middle lake terrace, the Ashinokuchi or Kanagame mud-flow coincides with the A-layer and the lower terrace.

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With the increase of retail stores and their modernization, the regular markets are on the wane in most parts of the country. In Akita prefecture, on the contrary, open-air markets are thriving and the number of market-places was on the increase; namely 22 markret-places in 1893, 24 in 1935 and 44 in 1966.
The results of the author's study on regular markets in Akita Prefecture are summarised as follows;
(1) The market-places are grouped into the following three areas according to their distribution.
a) The basin of the River Yoneshiro.
b) The sea coast area.
c) Yokote Basin.
(2) Several types are classified according to their location.
a) Markets originated from river ports in days when river conveyance was in general use.
b) Markets developed in a basin at places easy of access.
c) Markets in villages or towns at the mouths of valleys, where people in hilly district could carry on trade with those in lowlands.
d) Markets at mining-towns.
e) The markets set up newly for the purpose of commercial enterprises.
These markets are with simple booths or with street-stalls on either side of the roads (except national and prefectural roads), where marketeers sell vegetables, clothing, fishes and general merchandise. These markets are opened in the form of morning-fairs.
(3) The reasons why such markets survive are as follows;
a) People can get cheaper and fresh vegetables, fishes directly from producers.
b) Market-places are not only the places of trade but also of recreation, where people can have friendly contact with marketeers.
c) At present, a group of marketeers form their own organization for the protection of their interests.
d) The market days are scheduled to enable them to make tours to various places in succession.
e) As some of towns have fewer stores in proportion with the population, the inhabitants are often more dependent on these markets in everyday life.
These are, in conclusion, due to the fact that Akita Prefecture is backward, and that the development of commerce remains far behind.

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The River Hei flows to the east across the central part of Kitakami Mountains and debouches in its lower course into the embayed Miyako Lowland. In the middle course, the river makes incised meandering. A section cut into a slip-off slope of a meander shows a sequence of down-stream migration of the bending and accompanying deposition of fluviatile and subaerial sediments (see illustration). The fluviatile sediments are red; such materials are found in residual form both in the mountains and on the terraces along Sanriku coast.
Such paleopedological data are useful for the study of the chronological relation of the incised meandering in the mountains with the coastal terrace formation and the evolution of the mountain landscape.

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Sendai-daira is a mountain consisted of limestone within the Abukuma granite area. It makes a longitudinal flat ridge two kilometers long, at about 850m above the sea level. There are four small dolines at its northern part and a small karrenfeld has developed on its eastern slope near the flat top covered with thick residual red soil. The existence of two blind valleys near the southern foot of the mountain suggests a connection with the underground stream at the “Irimizu” limestone cave. The cave opens at the western foot of the mountain. It is about 700m long, of which the last 300m is not easily accessible.

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Noshiro-Hama-asanai and Osaki-Tenno areas are the two chief cores of sand-pear growing in Akita Prefecture. Under the leadership of landed farmers and progressive farmers, the culture of sandpear in unirrigated fields and newly reclaimed laud was started in the last decade of the 19th century.
In farm-houses with 1 to 1.5ha. of cropped land, the rate of pear growing farms is 72% in Hama-asanai and 75% in Osaki. It is seen that the larger the scale of a farm is, the larger the area under pear raising. The native kinds of pears traditionally raised here are late growing varieties and they are rather late to be shipped to the market. Efforts are continued to produce early ripening varieties.
In pre-war time, Hokkaido and Tokyo area were main markets, but now with the decreased production the products are mostly consumed locally.

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At Uwano-hara in the suburbs of Shiogama City, a postwar reclamation project was carried out for the purpose of using it as farmland. However, the land allotted to the farmers was too small, and not enough care was taken after the destruction of farms due to a typhoon (1951). Most of the farmers are now working at offices in the city, taking advantage of their suburban dwelling. Nevertheless they retain the land, even if it is a waste land for they expect to sell it at a high price as house-lots in the near future.

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