That the Inland Customs dues of China are vexatious there can be no doubt; yet it is open to question if the combined duties of all the likin-barriers on any one main road extending from frontier to frontier of any single province in China are greater than the _ad valorem_ duties imposed by our colony of Victoria upon the protected goods crossing her border from an adjoining colony.
[Illustration: PAGODA BY THE WAYSIDE, WESTERN CHINA.] Leaving the bridge, the road leads again up the hills.

Poppy was now in full flower, and everywhere in the fields women were collecting opium.
They were scoring the poppy capsules with vertical scratches and scraping off the exuded juice which had bled from the incisions they made yesterday.

Hundreds of pack horses carrying Puerh tea met us on the road; while all day long we were passing files of coolies toiling patiently along under heavy loads of crockery.

They were going in the same direction as ourselves to the confines of the empire, distributing those teacups, saucers, and cuplids, china spoons, and rice-bowls that one sees in every inn in China.

Most of the crockery is brought across China from the province of Kiangsi, whose natural resources seems to give it almost the monopoly of this industry.