sunset, we passed under the Garden Bridge, from which many pairs of curious eyes watched our departure, the sturdy little tug puffing continuously and tooting spasmodically as it entered the Whangpu River to pass along the length of the Bund and native city wharves, thus affording an unexcelled view of Shanghai's glory. After rounding a bend toward the southeast our course was southward up the river to Sankong, from there west as far as the walled city of Sungkiang, and further, winding around in a west by south direction, we passed out of Kiangsu province into Chehkiang and came to Kashing, a walled city with a customs station under the management of the Hangchow customs. Here we entered the Grand Canal and followed its southwesterly course through several unimportant but crowded places, at one of which Samen, or Shih Men, we left the launch-train and proceeded in a native boat southeasterly toward Haining by means of the by-way canals which traverse the delta as frequently as crossroads are found in the country districts of western lands. At Samen, the Grand Canal proper makes a right-angled turn to the west as far as Dongsi, or Tang Hsi, where another right-angled turn gives it a straight course southward to Hangchow, its terminus.
All along we found the canals full of life, large boats laden with firewood passing down to Shanghai, while smaller boats with market supplies and other articles were met plying between intermediate points. Large rafts of fir or bamboo, sometimes stretching as far as one could see, excited wonder as to how four or at most five men
