Ch. XX.] BOAT-LIFE. 333 



way unimpeded, and the boat-wall presented in this direc- 

 tion is comparatively dull and inactive, like the back of a 

 row of houses ; but direct your boat through the avenue, 

 and aU is bustle and activity. The tide is very strong, and 

 it requires all the energies of the clever boatmen and women 

 to make way either with or against it, through the crowded 

 thoroughfare between the rows — a highway by no means 

 silent, but constantly resounding with the cries and objurga- 

 tions of the busy Chinese, who are now rowing, now pushing 

 with a boat-hook, now threading their way 'through the craft 

 which are moving in both directions, now bumping against 

 the stationary boats, and thus making slow progress up the 

 street. Every such boat has its family dwelling in it, and 

 each presents its little scene of domestic life before the 

 passing eye. Besides the sampans, or common 'covered 

 boats, there are many palatial craft, with elaborately-carved 

 and gilded fronts, which in the evening show a blaze of 

 light, and busy waiters moving about among the feasting 

 Celestials and painted Chinese women mixing with the 

 crowd ; not unfrequently gambling-houses, or places of 

 licentiousness and debauch. It is, altogether, a scene not 

 to be forgotten ; and, as night advances, the streets of boats 

 are extended by the crowds of sampans which have been 

 plying during the day, but which at sunset take up their 

 stations side by side in the canals, within which they are 

 secured by a boom, just as the gates of the city are kept 

 closed during the night. As evening comes on, also, nume- 

 rous large house-boats, two storeys high, richly decorated 

 and ornamented, return from their various pic-nic excur- 

 sions — a number of half-naked Chinamen poling them 

 slowly and laboriously along ; meantime, groups of the 

 better class stand at the door enjoying the scene ; and 



