during the journey! For the down journey, when the work is much easier
and the time only one-fourth, they receive only a shilling. These
labourers earn about 1-1/4d. for ten hours' work.

In February the river is lowest and the water clearest. Then the towns
and villages stand 160 feet above the surface of the river. Their walls,
staircases, gates, and pagodas stand up in the flat triangles of the
valley openings. Every inch of hill and valley is covered with fields or
woods. Later in the spring the river begins to rise, and in summer is a
huge rolling volume of chocolate-brown or greyish water. At certain
places where the valley is narrow the water may rise a hundred feet
higher than in February. A voyage on it is then more dangerous, for
banks, boulders, and reefs are covered with water and form whirlpools
and seething eddies.

Below the towns and villages shoals of junks lie moored waiting for
work. Every cliff, every bend has its name--Yellow Hat, Sleeping Swine,
Double Dragon, etc. Nor are pirates wanting. They have their haunts
among the mountains, and fall upon the junks at convenient points.
Sometimes large white notices are seen on projecting rocks. They may be
"The waterway is not clear," or "Small junks should anchor here." Thus
the boatowners are warned of danger.

The earnings of a boatowner are not large, and he is glad enough if he
can bring his boat back to Hankow in safety after a voyage up and down
the river. With anything but pleasure he sees the large Russian vessels
lying at Hankow and taking in tea. Hankow is the greatest tea port of
China, and China is the home of the tea plant. It is not more than 250
years since tea was first known in Europe, where it is now in general
use, as also in many other parts of the world. In England and Russia it
is a national drink, and the Russians used formerly to transport their
tea to Europe by caravans through Mongolia and Siberia. Now the export
of tea from China has declined, and the Middle Kingdom has been
outstripped by India and Ceylon.

IN NORTHERN CHINA

In the north-westernmost province of the kingdom, Kansu, is a famous old
town, named Si-ning, surrounded with a fine stone wall. I had completed
my first journey through Tibet and came to Si-ning on November 23, 1896,
accompanied by my servant, Islam Bay.

When we left Si-ning we had a riding horse each, and six mules with
their three drivers. They accompanied us for some days as far as a small
t