SHA-SHIH 55 
accompanied me through the town. It is a place of 
considerable size, having a population of about 100,000, 
and has fine streets and shops for a Chinese town. It is 
a large trade centre, and at certain seasons hundreds of 
junks may be seen waiting for the water to fall, in order 
to proceed up the river. They form rows nearly two 
miles long, and thickly packed off the town; their 
cargoes being principally cotton goods for the up-river 
ports. Mr. Gulston informed me that last year the 
cholera worked terrific destruction among the inhabi- 
tants of the town, and that the stench from the corpses 
was almost unbearable, the Chinese custom being to 
allow a considerable time to elapse between death and 
interment, without taking into any consideration the 
state of the weather. 
Continuing down the stream, I arrived at Ho-sia, 
thirty miles further, on the 19th. Having heard that 
there were some lakes inland that were much frequented 
by wading birds, I wished to visit them and have some 
shooting, if possible. I landed with one of my men 
and, with the intention of spending the night on shore, 
hired a coolie, who professed to know the way, to carry 
my things. After several hours’ walk through a very 
fertile country in which tobacco and sugar are largely 
grown, and seeing no traces of the lakes, he brought 
me to a large and thickly populated village, where I 
