pelicans; and one morning, having wounded one, we had an exciting hunt after the fellow with the junk, but he drifted so fast down stream that we were forced to give up the chase. Carrying our guns when ashore, we served to vary our fare occasionally with a brace or two of teal and a pheasant. The country people, who were all agriculturists, were invariably civil and quiet; they examined our cloth clothes and buttons with much interest, but I think what most took their fancy were our boots, particularly the laced ones. The people seemed poor, but not wretched; though the brushwood, reed, and mud-plastered hovels in which they lived would have been almost rejected as cattle-housing in any civilised country. The old mistress of the house was usually engaged spinning out cotton wool, and very frequently we found an old man perched on the frame of a revolving millstone, keeping a water-buffalo in company at its monotonous work. A shot from our guns was sufficient to bring out a crowd of young hopefuls; the pigs looked suspicious, but the dogs bolted at first sight. Below Shi-show large quantities of oziers are grown, which were being cut and transported up the river; and reeds we saw in large quantities, which are mixed with mud in the manufacture of houses.

On the 23rd of March, at 4 P.M., we reached Shi-show (hien), a small walled town of little importance. It is situated on the right bank, just at a very sudden bend of the river. Its wall was in a very dilapidated condition, and it might almost be passed without notice, were it not for a group of small hills which attract the attention at a long distance, and are the only eminences for miles round. These hills were visited by some of our party, and were pronounced to be of granite, though I certainly thought I could discern with a glass strata running N.E. by E., and S.W. by W.,

inclined about eighty degrees to the northward. The two most pointed ones were crowned with temples, and each had a few trees on its summit. The highest is about four hundred feet above the river. This was the first place where hills had touched upon the river bank since our leaving the Tung-ting Lake. Some extensive swamps lie to the eastward of the place. There was no appearance of business, and but few junks along the shore of the small suburb which lies just above the walled town.

The point or tongue of land opposite Shi-show runs into the river with a sandy spit, and, as there was some wind blowing at the time, we had a little difficulty in rounding it. This afforded our skipper an excuse for wanting to cross over to the town side; but, as we foresaw that the inevitable consequence of such a proceeding would be a delay there until next morning, we advised the old gentleman to the contrary. Finding that direct appeal did not answer, he resorted to stratagem, and tried us on the humane side, stating that he required rice for the crew, and, notwithstanding we had made him an advance of half the passage-money when we engaged him, he wished money from us to purchase it with; but we discovered that there was a sufficiency on board. He then turned rusty, ordered the men to knock off work, and went into his cabin. The crew was at this time six or seven in number. It was evident that a lesson was required; so two of the party forthwith hauled the skipper out by his tail, the boatmen were ordered to "proceed," and one of us kept guard on the roof of the house with a rifle, on the look-out if any should attempt to escape, and stirred the unwilling ones up with a mop-handle. One of the crew stepped forward to interfere between our people and the skipper, when a push sent him spinning over the bows backwards into the river; but not letting go of the bamboo pole

he had in his hand, he passed under the junk and came up inshore of her, and was got on board. This so frightened both skipper and crew, that they set to work with a will, and, having poled along the shallow until we got to a suitable place, they jumped ashore with the tracking-line, and thus we carried the point in more ways than one.

"Skipper Point" will be seen on the chart opposite Shishow. It marks the upper end of the most tortuous portion of the river, and will long be remembered by the members of the first Expedition on the Upper Yang-tsze.

CHAPTER VII

SHI-SHOW TO I-CHANG.

By the foregoing chapter the reader should have gained some notion of the tediousness of boat travelling, and he can well imagine the impatience with which we looked forward to meeting with a place on the river marked on the map, as if to assure ourselves that we had made some real progress on our western journey. The day of our passing Shi-show, already mentioned, was our seventh on the Upper Yang-tsze, and we halted that night about a mile and a half above the place. The good effect of the principal incident of that day was evident on the following one, by our making good twenty-six geographical miles; and, the river's course being now tolerably direct, the evening found us well advanced northward, and we anchored above the village of Ho-hia. The first island of any extent which we had yet met with, since parting with the naval squadron, was passed early in the day, from which circumstance we named it "Sunday Island."

It is almost needless for me in this place to offer suggestions concerning the navigation of the river, as our observations on that head appear in connection with the chart; but I would remark that from Shi-show upwards the nature of the river differs considerably from what it is below that place. As I have already stated, for the first hundred-and-twenty miles, the Upper Yang-tsze is exceedingly tortuous. We passed up it at that season when, the waters being at their winter level, we could discern the position of the shoals and flats, and the nature of its banks: we returned when the