A, S. Bickmore—Journey through China. 15 
river. By this time, after the evil was done, the Mandarins at 
Yamun began firing small cannon every ten or fifteen minutes; 
and this they kept up regularly for some two hours, showin 
plainly to us all that they expected to be attacked next them- 
selves 
I found we had thus unwittingly ran directly into a nest of | 
those assassizis who prowl in bands over the whole country. I 
trusted however that no one had seen me, for that was my only 
hope of saving my life. 
Nothing remained for me to do but keep as quiet as possible 
and leave the place at the earliest dawn. I therefore sat down 
quietly, opened the lid of my revolver box—for I believe it is a 
uty every one owes to his Creator to save his life at any cost 
until he is convicted of some crime—and coolly determined 
when the event came to sell my life as dearly as possible. 
But after listening with the keenest solicitude for many long, 
lonely hours, I finally fell asleep, and when J awoke again our. 
boat was floating down the stream and this village of assassins 
was far out of view behind us. 
We soon came to Lichang the principal coal mine on the 
ne on 
Siang, It is situated on the left bank of the river some 50 
miles above Hangchau. The cog] beds here were seen resting 
on limestone, and this is also the case in Sz’chuen, at the coal’ 
mines near Peking, and probably in every part of the empire 
where both occur. On the coal strata rests a red sandstone, 
which origi ‘covered all these coal deposits, at least, in 
this region ; and the coal appears at the surface only where it 
has been thrust up through the overlying strata of red sand- 
stone or where this sandstone has suffered very considerable 
denudation. As we were but six miles from the village where 
the murder occurred, the Mandarin sent to protect me declared 
he would not let me go on shore and inspect the mines on any 
condition, and therefore I could note only what was to be seen 
from the river as we passed, All the so-called “ mines” that 
thus came,in view were nothing more than deep pits in the 
sides of hills and consequently only ‘surface coals” have been 
obtained 
ion, to doubt whether it will ever eqital the best coal in England 
and America. Hangchau is the great coal depot for the pro- 
