the Japanese steamship agency has fallen into Chinese hands; and a Government exhibition, founded with a view to advertising Japanese goods, has recently closed and its exhibits been sold off at auction. Even so, "Made in Japan is writ large on most of the cotton goods and fancy articles, lamps, umbrellas, and straw hats. The last-named head-gear is becoming very popular with all classes, and I was amused to discover that the fashionable hat of the season—a narrow-brim straw with highly coloured ribbon, obviously of Japanese make—bore inside the crown a device showing the British royal arms, and the not inappropriate motto, 'Honi soit qui mal y pense.'"[1] Sha-shih, however, manufactures a large amount of cotton cloth, 178,000 cwt. of which find their way yearly to the provinces of the West. It is made in three qualities, is the usual 14 inches in width, and sells at 1½d., 1¾d., and 2½d. a yard.[2]
From daylight on the 29th of October we steamed steadily up-river, the low-lying plains
