Australia."

"But 'Australia'--where is it?"

"It is a rich colony of England of immense importance."

"But where is it?" he persisted.

"_Dios mio!_" I exclaimed aghast, "it is in China."

But his friend interposed. "The gentleman is talking in fun," he said.
"Thou knowest, Pepe, where is Australia, where is Seednay, and
Melboornay, where all the banks have broken one after the other in a
bankruptcy colossal."

"_Ya me figuraba donde era_," Pepe replied, as I edged uncomfortably
away.

During my journey across China it was not often that I was called upon
to make use of my profession. But I was pleased to be of some service to
this rich banker. He wished to consult me professionally, because he had
heard from the truthful lips of rumour of the wonderful powers of
divination given to the foreign medical man. What was his probable
tenure of life? That was the problem. I gravely examined two of his
pulses--every properly organised Chinaman has four hundred--and finding
his heart where it should be in the centre of his body, with the other
organs ranged round it like the satellites round the sun--every Chinaman
is thus constructed--I was glad to be able to assure him that he will
certainly live forty years longer--if Heaven permit him.

Wong has a grown-up son of twenty who will succeed to the bank; he is at
present the managing proprietor of a small general store purchased for
him by his father. The son has been taught photography by Mr. Jensen,
and has an excellent camera obtained from Paris. He is quite an
enthusiast. In his shop a crowd is always gathered round the counter
looking at the work of this Chinese amateur. There are a variety of
stores for sale on the shelves, and I was interested to notice the
cheerful promiscuity with which bottles of cyanide of potassium and
perchloride of mercury were scattered among bottles of carbonate of
soda, of alum, of Moet and Chandon (spurious), of pickles, and Howard's
quinine. The first time that cyanide of potassium is sold for alum, or
corrosive sublimate for bicarbonate of soda there will be an _eclat_
given to the dealings of this shop which will be very gratifying to its
owner.

The telegraph in Yunnan is very largely used by the Chinese, especially
by the bankers and officials. By telegraph you can remit, as I have
said, through the Chinese banks, telegraphic transfers to the value of
thousands of taels in single transactions. It is principally the banks
and