olid ingots of silver, and copper
cash. The silver is in lumps of one tael or more each, the tael being a
Chinese ounce and equivalent roughly to between 1400 and 1500 cash.
Speaking generally a tael was worth, during my journey, three shillings,
that is to say, forty cash were equivalent to one penny. There are
bankers in every town, and the Chinese methods of banking, it is well
known, are but little inferior to our own. From Hankow to Chungking my
money was remitted by draft through a Chinese bank. West from Chungking
the money may be sent by draft, by telegraph, or in bullion, as you
choose. I carried some silver with me; the rest I put up in a package
and handed to a native post in Chungking, which undertook to deliver it
intact to me at Yunnan city, 700 miles away, within a specified time. By
my declaring its contents and paying the registration fee, a mere
trifle, the post guaranteed its safe delivery, and engaged to make good
any loss. Money is thus remitted in Western China with complete
confidence and security. My money arrived, I may add, in Yunnan at the
time agreed upon, but after I had left for Talifu. As there is a
telegraph line between Yunnan and Tali, the money was forwarded by
telegraph and awaited my arrival in Tali.

There are no less than four native post-offices between Chungking and
Suifu. All the post-offices transmit parcels, as well as letters and
bullion, at very moderate charges. The distance is 230 miles, and the
charges are fifty cash (_1-1/4d._) the catty (1-1/3lb.), or any part
thereof; thus a single letter pays fifty cash, a catty's weight of
letters paying no more than a single letter.

From Chungking to Yunnan city, a distance of 630 miles, letters pay two
hundred cash (fivepence) each; packages of one catty, or under, pay
three hundred and fifty cash; while for silver bullion there is a
special fee of three hundred and fifty cash for every ten taels,
equivalent to ninepence for thirty shillings, or two-and-a-half per
cent., which includes postage registration, guarantee, and insurance.

Tak-wan-hsien is a town of some importance, and was formerly the seat of
the French missionary bishop. It is a walled town, ranking as a Hsien
city, with a Hsien magistrate as its chief ruler. There are 10,000
people (more or less), within the walls, but the city is poor, and its
poverty is but a reflex of the district. Its mud wall is crumbling; its
houses of mud and wood are falling; the streets a