tralian had been ten months at Chungking. His up-river journey
occupied thirty-eight days, and was attended with one moving incident.
In the Hsintan rapid the towline parted, and his junk was smashed to
pieces by the rocks, and all that he possessed destroyed. It was in this
rapid that my boat narrowly escaped disaster, but there was this
difference in our experiences, that at the time of his accident the
river was sixty feet higher than on the occasion of mine.

Tang-chia-to, the customs out-station, is ten miles by river from
Chungking, but not more than four miles by land. So I sent the boat on,
and in the afternoon walked over to the city. A customs coolie came with
me to show me the way. My friend accompanied me to the river crossing,
walking with me through fields of poppy and sugarcane, and open beds of
tobacco. At the river side he left me to return to his solitary home,
while I crossed the river in a sampan, and then set out over the hills
to Chungking. It was more than ever noticeable, the poor hungry
wretchedness of the river coolies. For three days past all the trackers
I had seen were the most wretched in physique of any I had met in China.
Phthisis and malaria prevail among them; their work is terribly arduous;
they suffer greatly from exposure; they appear to be starving in the
midst of abundance. My coolie showed well by contrast with the trackers;
he was sleek and well fed. A "chop dollar," as he would be termed down
south, for his face was punched or chopped with the small-pox, he swung
along the paved pathway and up and down the endless stone steps in a way
that made me breathless to follow. We passed a few straggling houses and
wayside shrines and tombstones. All the dogs in the district recognised
that I was a stranger, and yelped consumedly, like the wolfish mongrels
that they are. From a hill we obtained a misty view of the City of
Chungking, surrounded on two sides by river and covering a broad expanse
of hill and highland. I was taken to the customs pontoon on the south
bank of the river, and then up the steep bank by many steps to the
basement of an old temple where the two customs officers have their
pleasant dwelling. I was kindly received, and stayed the night. We were
an immense height above the water; the great city was across the broad
expanse of river, here more than seven hundred yards in width. Away down
below us, moored close to the bank, and guarded by three Chinese armed
junks or gun