The instructions were explicit:-- Clause I .-- The new gaol shall be constructed out of the materials of the old.
Clause II .-- The prisoners shall remain in the old gaol till the new gaol is constructed.
In Chungking the Commissioner of Customs is Dr.F.Hirth, whose Chinese house is on the highest part of Chungking in front of a temple, which, dimly seen through the mist, is the crowning feature of the city.

A distinguished sinologue is the doctor, one of the finest Chinese scholars in the Empire, author of "China and the Roman Orient," "Ancient Porcelain," and an elaborate "Textbook of Documentary Chinese," which is in the hands of most of the Customs staff in China, for whose assistance it was specially written.

Dr.Hirth is a German who has been many years in China.

He holds the third button, the transparent blue button, the third rank in the nine degrees by which Chinese Mandarins are distinguished.
The best site in Chungking has been fortunately secured by the Methodist Episcopalian Mission of the United States.

Their missionaries dwell with great comfort in the only foreign-built houses in the city in a large compound with an ample garden.