1 62 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



him how he accounted for one firm remaining in existence 

 for nearly three centuries. He replied, " Our rule is strict. 

 Our inside staff are all from Shansi ; they are apprenticed, 

 live in the hong, and are never allowed out after nine at 

 night." He said the southern mercantile establishments 

 are more lax. These Shansi banks grant drafts for large 

 sums upon their branches scattered all over the empire, and 

 it is wonderful how, with the slow intercommunication, they 

 manage their finances as they do. 



Another day I started for a stroll along the foreshore 

 below the walls. I left the city by the nearest gate, the 

 " T'ai-ping Men," or " Gate of Peace,'' and descended 240 

 filthy steps crowded with water-carriers going up, and mal- 

 odorous manure-carriers going down, each with two heavy 

 buckets slung across the shoulders by a heavy bamboo 

 carrier — ^the " pien tan," or " convenience carrier," in use 

 from Penang to San Francisco and wherever Chinese 

 congregate. All the water used in the city is carried up 

 from the river, through the different gates, by poorly-paid 

 coolies, who get from four to five " cash " — a farthing — for 

 a load of two large buckets. I reached the beach, now dry 

 and crowded with shanties, shops, opium-dens, wood and 

 coal stores, all of which will have to be removed a month 

 hence, when the river makes another big rise. I noticed 

 two gigantic isolated rocks standing on the sandbank ; these 

 had dropped out of the cliff immediately beneath the city wall, 

 a slice of which fell down later one stormy night, carry- 

 ing with it several adjoining houses and their unfortunate 

 inhabitants. According to local information — not always 

 reliable — these rocks fell down three winters back. The 

 larger is a rough cube of about fifty feet, a considerable 

 portion having been already quarried away, its position on 

 the water's edge being very convenient, and the rock a 



