swung on a pivot aft. This oar was nearly as long as the boat itself, and its effect when used was to make the vessel turn at once in its own length. The craft is built entirely of pine, is as strong as it is light, and admirably adapted in every respect for the navigation of the perilous rapids which begin to show themselves about half a mile above Shui-kow. We anchored for the night close to a military station, if two or three shanties and the half-dozen miserable-looking soldiers armed with match- locks, who occupied them, could be honoured with so dignified a name.
Next morning, as usual, there was a thick fog upon the river. This prevented our seeing more than two or three feet around the boat, and put a stop to all traffic till within an hour of noon. Our halting-place that evening was the village of Ching- ku-kwan; and there Mr. Doolittle and myself went ashore to inspect a Snake Temple. There was no image of the snake to be seen in this shrine; but the tablet of the snake king was there, set up for worship in a holy place, and we learned that during the seventh month a living snake becomes the object of adoration. Next day Mrs. Cheng and her husband had a little conjugal disagreement. As for Captain Cheng, he sat meekly smoking his pipe, a true example of marital equanimity, waiting till the storm should be over-past. Half an hour later his wife was working away as busily as ever. Each night the boat is arched over, waggon-fashion, with a telescopic arrangement of bamboo matting, forty feet long, ten feet wide and four feet high, which covers the entire deck. My friend and I occupied a small space at the bow. Ahong, the cook and fourteen boatmen were stretched out amid-ships, a small space at the stern being curtained off for the captain and his spouse. The representatives of three generations of the Cheng family are to
