interior divided into rooms for eating and sleeping. The crew all lived
aft on the great overhanging stern, where the cooking was done, and
where the handle of the great "yuloe," or sculling oar, protruded. In
front of the cabin was a little piece of deck-room where Charley and I
had our camp-stools, and which gave us an excellent place from which to
observe everything going on ahead.

[Illustration: THE TEA HONG.]

The boat coolies were straining on the tow-rope a hundred yards ahead.
Frequently we passed some fisherman sitting in his little mat hut, with
his feet on the windlass that raised his great square net; but never
did we see them catch a fish, although on our return the same men were
working as assiduously as ever. The country presented the same compact
system of farming, the hills in many places being terraced to their
very summits, and planted with waving crops of wheat and millet, beans,
and vegetables of every description. Toward noon we passed the "Ta" and
"Lao Kin Shan" (great and little golden mountain), and by the time
Aling had announced "tiffin" (luncheon), we were abreast of Kin Kow, a
picturesque village in the neighborhood of which I generally found
some excellent shooting. After tiffin we again resumed our camp-stools.
I lighted a cigar, and Akong smoked his hubble-bubble, a small copy of
the nargileh of the Turks. The river was alive with junks, some going
in the same direction as ourselves, and others loaded with tea,
charcoal, vegetable tallow, oil of various kinds, and gypsum, brought,
most of them, from the far western province of Sze Chuen.

There was but little variety in the journey until the following day,
when we approached the great bend in the Yang Tsze, and Akong told us
that, if so inclined, we could land from the boat, and by walking six