Passage in a " Tender" 237 



at once, and I was tired of the constant delays of our salt 

 junk, and we were promised still further detentions at the 

 Li-kin stations lower down. I was willing, too, to lose fifteen 

 dollars to escape living another fifteen days in such close 

 quarters with my fellow-passengers, while the privacy of a 

 small boat would be more conducive to quiet observation of 

 the rapids and the keeping up of my journal and sketch- 

 book. But nothing suitable was obtainable, and we returned 

 in the dusk to supper and another night on our salt-junk. 

 Going ashore afterwards for a stroll with my cheroot, I 

 entered into conversation with some of the junk-men 

 belonging to vessels that had come down during my absence 

 and inoored near us for the night. They told me that with 

 the up-river wind sure to prevail at this season, and the 

 inevitable delay at the Kwei-kwan barrier, the salt-junks 

 would not get down in less than ten days, while a " wupan " 

 would do the journey in five. One of these had recently 

 passed down, and would certainly moor for the night at 

 Fu-chow ; she was empty, and I should probably be able to 

 engage her. These " wupans," or, as they are here called, 

 " wu pa'rh " (literally, five planks : the common " sampans " 

 or open boats of the ports being " three planks "), are the 

 sampans of the Upper Yang-tse ; they are larger and have 

 more freeboard, and they carry a square, classically cut lug, 

 which, together with the mast, is stowed away for the down- 

 ward voyage. These wu pa'rh act as tenders to the big 

 upward-bound junks — carry their tow-lines ashore, and 

 transport their crews from bank to bank at the crossings. 

 Although not affording much accommodation, they are 

 eminently safe boats to travel by, their crews being familiar 

 with every rock and eddy, while, if they do touch, their 

 tough but elastic bottoms of hardwood (li-mu, a kind of 

 oak) bound off again, where a laden junk comes to total 



