218 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



right hand, looking up the stream, a vast plain is 

 seen, which looks sadly subject to inundation, whilst 

 the mountains which we left behind us at Ngan-king 

 may be seen glimmering in the far distance, as if 

 stretching in a more direct line from that city towards 

 our destination at Hankow. The navigation of the 

 stream still continued very easy ; to be sure, we put 

 our keel occasionally in the mud, but then we were 

 in a hurry, and feeling our way up a totally unknown 

 stream, and were much harassed by fogs, especially 

 during the 27th, after passing a picturesque town 

 called Tung-loo. This mist, and other indications, 

 warned our sagacious pilot that we were about to 

 have a storm, for it appeared this neighbourhood was 

 famous for strong winds ; and on the morning of 

 Sunday the 28th he deemed it a deliberate temptation 

 of Providence for us to weigh our anchor. He told 

 us how many junks were wrecked in such storms as 

 that impending ; how the water of the river got blown 

 anywhere, and that the proper thing to do was to get 

 up a creek and lay out as many anchors as possible. 

 "We were too ill, with a low fever caught in the night 

 air of Silver Island, to quite enjoy the raciness of the 

 pilot's expostulation ; but finding the anchors were 

 coming up in spite of the rules laid down by his ex- 

 perience, he proceeded to light his cigar and abuse 

 the region through which we were passing. " Summer 

 or winter, it was always alike," he said ; " now hot 

 enough to make you wish your skin was off, then so 



