ith more accuracy it
might be termed a village. It is nevertheless, the head quarters of a
large junk fleet, and has one of the finest and strongest forts in China
to protect it from seaward. The place is interesting to us in one sense,
because in 1875 an English company obtained permission to construct a
line of rail from here to Shanghai.

China, with its four thousand years of existence, looked on this
innovation with a jealous eye, and would have pitched the whole concern
into the river, had she dared; unfortunately the line was carried near a
burying ground, and thus a ready excuse for stopping the work presented
itself. It was alleged that the noise would disturb the spirits of the
dead, of whom the Chinese are in ghostly fear. An almost similar
difficulty was met when the arsenal was built at Foo-Choo, and a
magnificent temple was actually erected in that city for the
accommodation of the refugee spirits.

To bring matters to a climax a man was run over by one of the trucks and
killed. The mandarins could no longer hold out against the popular
voice, and the whole plant was bought up by the Government for twice the
sum the projectors had spent about it.

This is the brief history of the first and, up to now, the only attempt
to introduce railways into China; but the late Kuldja difficulty, and
the ease with which the Russians had brought an army to their Siberian
frontier, have caused the Chinese to open their eyes to the advantage of
railways for strategic, if for no other purpose, and I believe a line is
already in contemplation between Tien-tsin and the capital.

Owing to a blunder on the part of the pilot, so some said, and some
others, in consequence of someone else's blunder, our anchor was dropped
too near a mud bank, with the result that when the ship swung to a firm
knot current, up she went high and dry. Means were at once taken to get
her off, but by the time all the necessary arrangements were
completed--and there was no time lost either--the tide had ebbed
considerably.

In the middle watch of this, the "Iron Duke's" first night on the
Chinese territory, the steel hawser was brought to the capstan, but a
piece of yarn would have been equally efficacious; for, under the
immense strain, it snapped like a bow string, and, as there was now
nothing to keep the stern in check, away she went broadside on to the
difficulty.

Meantime a telegram had been wired to the admiral at Shanghai, and next
day