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CHAPTER II. 



SHANGHAI TO ICHANG. 



Shanghai to Ichang — Hankow — A Yang-tse boat — Sliasze — The 

 plains of Hupeh — A Szechuan river-boat — Flooded districts — 

 Approach to the Hills — Ichang. 



From Shanghai to Hankow the voyage is performed by one 

 of the many magnificent steamers of American t3rpe which, 

 since the opening of the Yang-tse river to foreign trade in 

 i860, ply daily between those two ports, a distance of 600 

 miles. It was on the eve of the Chinese New Year, in the 

 middle of February, when at midnight I rode down in a 

 jinricshaw to Jardine's wharf, and took up my quarters on 

 board the Tai- Wo moored alongside, preparatory to start- 

 ing up-stream the following morning at daylight. But 

 sleep was no easy matter; thousands of fire-crackers were 

 being let off in the streets, alive with countless Chinese 

 lanterns, and the din was deafening. Native passengers 

 were crowding on board, and the coolies carrying their 

 luggage were wrangling over their pay. I at length got to 

 sleep in the early hours of the morning, and woke up to 

 find that we were in the sea of muddy water which forms 

 the lower reaches of the Great River. A thin line of 

 brown, a shade deeper than that of the water, barely visible 

 on the starboard hand, indicated the left bank, while in 

 the opposite direction the muddy waste extended to the 

 horizon. Not a stray junk moving enlivened the desolate 



