SHA-SHIH 65 



accompanied me througli the town. It is a place of 

 considerable size, having a population of about 100,000, 

 and has fine streets and shops for a Chinese town. It is 

 a large trade centre, and at certain seasons hundreds of 

 junks maybe seen waiting for the water to fall, in order 

 to proceed up the river. They form rows nearly two 

 miles long, and thickly packed off the town ; their 

 cargoes being principally cotton goods for the up-river 

 ports. Mr. Gulston informed me that last year the 

 cholera worked terrific destruction among the inhabi- 

 tants of the town, and that the stench from the corpses 

 was almost unbearable, the Chinese custom being to 

 allow a considerable time to elapse between death and 

 interment, without taking into any consideration the 

 state of the weather. 



Continuing down the stream, I arrived at lio-sia, 

 thirty miles further, on the 19th. Having heard that 

 there were some lakes inland that were much frequented 

 by wading birds, I wished to visit them and have some 

 shooting, if possible. I landed with one of my men 

 and, with the intention of spending the night on shore, 

 hired a coolie, who professed to know the way, to carry 

 my things. After several hours' walk through a very 

 fertile country in which tobacco and sugar are largely 

 grown, and seeing no traces of the lakes, he brought 

 me to a large and thickly populated village, where I 



