Cuar. XIII] CANAL TRAVELLING. 253 
and tail, of which some Chinaman informer days had 
doubtless been extremely vain, and upon the whole 
I believe I made a pretty fair Chinaman. Although 
the Chinese countenance and eye differ considerably 
from those of a native of Europe, yet a traveller 
in the north has far greater chance of escaping 
detection than in the south of China, the features 
of the northern natives approaching more nearly 
to those of Europeans than they do in the south, 
and the difference amongst themselves also being 
greater. 
In China, the canal is the traveller’s highway, 
and the boat is his carriage, and hence the absence 
of good roads and carriages in this country. 
Such a mode of conveyance is not without its ad- 
vantages, however little we may think of it in 
England; for as the tide ebbs and flows through 
the interior for many miles, the boats proceed with 
considerable rapidity; the traveller, too, can sleep 
comfortably in his little cabin, which is, in fact, 
his house for the time being. 
The canal, after leaving Shanghae, leads in a 
' northerly direction, inclining sometimes a little to 
the west; branches leading off in all directions 
over the country. Some very large towns and 
walled cities were passed on our route, at one of 
which, named Cading, we halted for the night just 
under the ramparts. I spread out my bed in my 
little cabin, and went to sleep rather early, intend- 
ing to start by times with the tide next morning, 
