SHANG TAN—HO TSUI TSI—FIRST VIEW OF THE YELLOW RIVER—ON A RAFT—AT LANCHEO—A TELEGRAPH TROUBLE.

For forty li our road lay through these gorges, most of the way a considerable height above the river bed, and, owing to the darkness, our progress was slow, so that it was not till 11 p.m. that we got to our inn. Here we made inquiries for our baggage, but could get no information, though we subsequently found out that it and our two men were at another inn of the same village.

Shang Tan lies at the mouth of a river, the Ta T\'ung, which we crossed by a ferry; the missionaries, and any people holding official positions in the country, are exempted from paying toll for these ferries, and when travelling, or sending any property about, they usually carry a flag, with name and title inscribed in Chinese characters. I had a flag with my name on it, which was made in Sining, just to show who the baggage belonged to, but, of course, we could not claim exemption from tolls. Round Shang Tan there is a great deal of melon cultivation, and the fields are covered with stones, which perform the two-fold duty of protecting the ground from the fierce rays of the sun and raising the fruit out of the water should it rain heavily.

Towards evening we got to Ho Tsui Tsi, the last place in this direction which was wrecked by the Mohammedans, and beyond this the difference was at once apparent. Our halting-place that night was Ma Huei Tsi, a very small 326 village, consisting almost entirely of inns; in fact, its only raison d\'être must have been as a convenience for travellers. Nevertheless, instead of coming to a ramshackle, tumble-down house, very likely without any front door, the inn was in good repair, and the roof intact, quite a change after the stricken district we had passed through.

Ten miles from Ma Huei Tsi the road passes over a spur of the hills, and one gets one\'s first view of the mighty Huang Ho (Yellow River). On the other side the road descends to the pretty little straggling town of Ho K\'eo Tsi (the "mouth of the river") so called because at this point the Si Ho, which we had followed from some distance above Tankar, runs into the Yellow River. On both the ascending and descending sides of this spur, there are earthen pans dug in the soil, in which salt is collected from the brackish streams which abound.

Ten li further on the river has to be crossed by a ferry to a town called Sin Ch\'eng. When we got there, the ferry boat was at the far side of the river and the ferrymen busy doing something else; for about two hours we sat on the bank shouting to them to come across to us, and every now and then one of them would shout back that they would be over presently. At last we got exasperated, and seeing our hopes of getting into Lancheo that night rapidly vanishing, we entered into negotiations with a man to take us the rest of the distance by raft. We had just agreed on the price to be paid, and the man had gone away to make a few necessary preparations, when our baggage, which we thought was still ahead of us, turned up, and at the same time the ferry boat started to come across from the other side.

Shahzad Mir, Esau, and Shukr Ali had had a very pleasant time; their muleteers had given no trouble, and the food they had got on the road, filled as it was with oil, suited their taste admirably. It was now agreed that Ridley and the baggage should cross by the ferry to Sin 327 Ch\'eng and come on to Lancheo the next day with all the servants, while Rijnhart, Malcolm, and I went straight on on the raft, which was now ready. This raft was a strangely flimsy conveyance about eight feet by five feet; it was supported by six inflated deer skins, and over them was lashed a very light framework, on which we put our blankets. We were particularly cautioned when getting on board not to put our feet on the skins for fear of bursting them, and if possible to step where two cross pieces of the framework met.

In a few moments we were seated and waving adieux to Ridley, who almost simultaneously left the bank in the ferry boat. In addition to the three of us, there were two men to manage the raft, so we were pretty well crowded, and quite unable to shift our positions. When in smooth water we were some three inches clear and able to keep more or less dry, but in the rapids, which were of frequent occurrence, the water kept washing over the frame, thereby adding considerably to our discomfort. However, the novelty of the experience kept us amused, and there was plenty of variety. For a bit all would go smoothly, then in a few moments we would be in the middle of a rapid, and for the next minute or two the raft would dance madly round and round; it was like a panorama where the spectators revolved instead of the scenes. Now and then a new sensation would be added, when, going through a shallow, we suddenly heard the skins scraping along the bottom; but though amusing and more or less exciting, we had the satisfaction of knowing that there was no danger. Every now and then one of the men had to turn round to blow up a skin from which too much air had escaped; but in spite of this and their other duties, they found time to extract from some part of their clothes some singularly uninviting looking black bread, but before commencing to eat themselves they, with true Chinese politeness, offered it to us. We of course refused; however hungry we might have been, 328 and however tempting the food might have looked, it would have been a great breach of etiquette to have availed ourselves of their offer.

Meanwhile the sun was rapidly setting, and we began to realise that our chances of getting into the city before the gates were closed were small. On starting we had been assured that we could get from Sin Ch\'eng to Lancheo, a distance of seventy li by road, and about the same by water, in one Chinese hour, which is equal to two English hours, but we soon realised that this was an impossibility; double that time looked a great deal nearer the mark.

From Sin Ch\'eng downwards we had kept passing numbers of huge water-wheels, which lift the water out of the river and irrigate the fields in the neighbourhood. Some of them must have been fully sixty feet in diameter, and being constructed entirely of wood are very curious. Sometimes they are single and sometimes in groups of four or five; at intervals, when not anxiously watching the setting sun, I kept thinking what interesting pictures these wheels would make, but the kodak was with the baggage and the opportunity lost.

Meanwhile, Rijnhart had been making inquiries as to what chance we had of getting a raft at Lancheo, on which to continue our journey down the Yellow River. All along the road reports had been most conflicting, some people telling us that rafts were constantly leaving with wool for various places down the river, others telling us that we should have to go some distance by land, and then get a boat or a raft below the gorges. All we knew for certain was that Mr. and Mrs. Littledale had managed to get on to a raft at Lancheo, and we did not see why we shouldn\'t do likewise. Now, however, we seemed to be within measurable distance of the truth, for the owner of our raft told us th............