368 ''THE YANGTZE VALLEY AND BEYOND" 



j^gain says Mrs Bishop: "When niglit came, and I sat shivering in some 

 fetid hole, not fit for a decent heast, with only a bamboo railing between it 

 and tlie pigsty, I often thought Chinese traveling an utter al)omination." 

 And her readers fully agree, wondering the more with each page and chapter 

 that Mrs Bishop should have remained in the midst of such abomination^, 

 when not driven and held to it by any vow, or contract, or obligation — endur- 

 ing it all voluntarily, traveling in such ways, in such well-beaten tracks, for 

 pleasure and interest only. " The interest of mixing in any fashion with the 

 people far outweighed the discomfort of ])easant accommodation, even when it 

 was pretty bad," she says, and then mentions that "seven pigs occupied a de- 

 pression railed otfin one corner" of the room she occupied that night. 



One has to regret that Mrs Bishop's literary skill should be spent upon such 

 unpleasant subjects, such repulsive people and incidents, for the pictures are 

 all too clear and realistic. Mrs Bishop saw with the keen, trained eye which 

 notes and grasps every feature and detail, and she puts it before one as a 

 strong, sharply cut photographic print. Every extenuating circumstance is 

 made the most of for the benefit of the brutal, insolent people; not a tree, 

 )jlant, or flower escaped her, and the rocks, and stones, and soil were equally 

 observed. There was magnificent mountain scenery as she went further west 

 toward the snowy range, and her descriptions are charming, full of color and 

 vivid reality. The cost of this independent travel was not great, seven shil- 

 lings a day being the average of chair travel and wayside accommodations. 

 Everywhere she encountered poppy culture and opium smoking, and the chap- 

 ter devoted to the opium poppy at the end of the narrative is one of the most 

 interesting in the book. Mrs Bishoj) at the close expresses the kindest and 

 most hopeful sentiments for the Chinese, doubts that the break-up or the 

 decay of the empire has come, and sees some hope of the awakening of this 

 enigmatic race. 



Thk city of Shanghai is of nearly the same latitude as Mobile, Alabama, 

 Morocco, and Ale.vandria, Egypt, and in climate and luxuriance of plant life 

 much resembles these western cities. The town lies at the southeastern end of 

 a wide plain, tlie Kiangsu province, which has often been described as " the 

 garden of China." In the variety and wealth of. its fruits and vegetables it is 

 not unlike southern California. From the neighboring fields, rice, grain, and 

 cotton have l>een the principal crops, but of late the demand for cotton and the 

 good prices' offered for that staple by the mills recently built at Shanghai by 

 foreign capital have induced the farmers to give up the cultivation of rice and 

 grain and plant cotton instead. Shanghai is the commercial center of the most 

 densely populated section of the empire, 500 to 800 inhabitants to the square 

 mile being a fair estimate of the density of tlie population. The imports in 

 1898 of this city reached .S!'0,00(J,000, thus exceeding in value the entire imports 

 of the rest of t!ie empire. Canals, rivers, and creeks, peiietrating in all direc- 

 tions, converge toward Shanghai, affording easy communication for hundreds 

 of miles. Twenty-five years ago the river opposite the city was al)out 1,800 feet 

 broad at low water, but today cannot exceed 1,200 feet. The depth of water 

 on the bar, averaging only 19 feet and rarely reaching 23 feet, causes much loss 

 to shipowners because of the detention of steamers. 



