Part 8, Chapter 29: The Birth, Rise, and Fall of Junitaki Township Part 8, Chapter 30: The Further Decline of Junitaki and its Sheep Summary

The couple takes the train to Asahikawa, during which the main character reads a book about the history of the township in which the professor's homestead is located. The book explains that the original settlers of the area, eighteen persons in total, were poor dirt farmers who were fleeing from debt in Tsugaru. They hired an Ainu guide who led them far into the mountains. For days they traveled under the guise of looking for farmland, asking the guide to continue further into the mountains. When he finally declared they could go no further, the farmers accepted the cold, harsh, unsettled area. They refused to...