THE COLLEGE OF THE WHITE BEER. 517 



at such ports) conic out from shore and arc made fast alongside — the 

 transfer being made while under small headway. When the freight is 

 sufficient at such ports the steamer casts anchor. 



There are several lines of steamers plying the river and there is 

 considerable competition, though the British rather have the lead on 

 the others. There are two British lines and one Chinese line on whose 

 steamers tickets are interchangeable, thus facilitating stop-overs, and 

 between them they will shortly run a steamer each way each day on the 

 six hundred mile run from Shanghai to Hankow. An enterprising 

 Japanese firm and a German line are pushing for trade, and between 

 these five regular lines and the many tramp merchantmen, the amount 

 of freight moved easily makes the Yangtsze the main trade-artery of 

 the empire. 



We approached Nanking in the small hours of the morn, and as I 

 sat on deck watching the grayness of the early dawn give way to the 

 upward slanting pinkish beams of the orb of day I beheld a glorious 

 sight — the water at my feet, then the curving shore, beyond to the east- 

 ward the graceful towers and pagodas of the city, and in the distance 

 the peaceful gray and bluish hills, along the sculptured heights of which 

 the first gleams of a sun, that would soon be altogether dazzling, were 

 silently but swiftly stealing. Out on the river three vague forms, like 

 huge monsters of the sea crept into inland w T aters, loomed suggestively 

 through the diminishing gloom, and as the first rays that marked the 

 beginning of a central China scorcher stole over the eastern hills, the 

 reveille call of bugles turned my eyes upon these monster shadows, and 

 from out the disappearing mist there came three men of war under as 

 many flags, British, German and Chinese; the last in snowy white flying 

 the dragon flag, the others in darksome coats, as if prepared for war. 

 Their bugle notes were answered, as by an echo, from the camps of 

 Chinese provincial troops on shore. 



When I first saw the Yangtsze and traveled on its swiftly rushing 

 surface it was the beginning of winter, and her waters were low and 

 falling; but even then I was struck with the magnitude of this great 

 waterway dividing the empire nearly in twain from east to west. On 

 this trip it was summer and her bed was full, the rush and width of 

 her muddy waters even more majestic. Piloting in midsummer is 

 somewhat easier on account of the steady fullness of the water, but in 

 the spring and autumn, during the rise and fall of the chocolate stream, 

 the changes in the channels are many and various, so that piloting is no 

 mean art. In sharp and yet pleasing contrast with the brown current, 

 the banks and alluvial plains were green with tall reed grass, much used 

 for fuel, which nearly everywhere attained a height of from seven to 

 ten feet. On either side of the river away across the plains successive 

 ranges of hills were overshadowed by huge masses of cumulus cloud 



