2 KIU-KIANG 
the Yang-tze-kiang, with the intention of penetrating 
Tibet from its eastern boundary. With this object in 
view I left England on February 7, 1887, in the 
s.s. Palinurus, bound for Shanghai, with my wife and 
family, who I intended should accompany me as far as 
Ichang, the last treaty port on the river. Nothing of 
any special interest occurred during the voyage, and as 
it has been frequently described, and is now so often 
taken by the ordinary globe-trotter, it will receive no 
notice in this work. 
I arrived on April 2, and after a stay of a week, 
left in one of the splendid river steamers for Kiu-kiang 
on my way to Ichang, which place I purposed to make 
my head-quarters. 
These boats are most luxuriously furnished, and the 
comfort of passengers is carefully provided for in every 
way. At Kiu-kiang my real work commenced. This 
town is situated on the right bank of the river, and 
just above the Poyang Lake. It is built as high as 
possible above the ordinary level of the river, but as 
violent floods occur during the summer, it suffers, like 
all the other towns on the flat banks of the river, from 
inundations, floods being caused by the melting of the 
snow on the mountains among which the river takes 
its rise. 
Just before reaching Kiu-kiang one of the most 
