Coal is for sale, both pure and mixed with clay in briquettes, and salt in blocks almost as black as coal, and three times as heavy, and piles of drugs--a medley of bones, horns, roots, leaves, and minerals--and raw cotton and cotton yarn from Wuchang and Bombay, and finished goods from Manchester.

At one of the villages there was a chair for hire, and, knowing how difficult was the country, I was willing to pay the amount asked--namely, _7d._ for nearly seven miles; but my friend the convert, who arranged these things, considered that between the _5d._ he offered and the _7d._ they asked the discrepancy was too great, and after some acrimonious bargaining it was decided that I should continue on foot, my man indicating to me by gestures, in a most sarcastic way, that the "_chiaodza_" men had failed to overreach him.
[Illustration: A TEMPLE IN SZECHUEN.] [Illustration: LAOWATAN.] At Sengki-ping it rained all through the night, and I had to sleep under my umbrella because of a solution in the continuity of the roof immediately above my pillow.

And it rained all the day following; but my men, eager to earn their reward of one shilling, pushed on through the slush.

It was hard work following the slippery path above the river.

Few rivers in the world flow between more majestic banks than these, towering as they do a thousand feet above the water.