which forms a striking land-mark for river navigation. The changes which have taken place since our Admiralty chart was laid down renders that map comparatively useless, both for this and other parts of the river, at any rate when the waters are low.
Shasze stands on the left bank of the Yangtsze river, which is here more than a mile and a half broad, with a deep roomy channel; and we may gather from the crowd of native shipping that lies anchored off the town or close to its fine stone embankment, that we have reached an important centre of trade. This embankment terminates at its upper end in a sort of bul- wark, crowned with the finest pagoda to be found anywhere along this river. Immense labour has been bestowed in fortifying this site against the undermining influence of the current; and the town is placed at such an angle on the stream, that the action of the water always keeps a clear channel close to its strong stone-retaining wall. Stone is freely used in this part of the upper Yangtsze, and is readily obtainable in unlimited supplies in the gorges above the town. At Shasze, landing- stages for steamers might be made at almost any part of the bank; while there are splendid sites for a foreign settlement on the hills across the stream.
Coal abounds in Hunan and Szechuan, and yet we found it difficult to procure. In the former province it is worked at two places only — Tsang-yang-hien and Pa-tung-hien, and there to an extremely limited degree ; but in Szechuan there is a good deal more coal-mining going on. The coal is of good quality, in every way suitable for steam purposes — at least the samples which we collected were excellent.
We arrived on February 3rd at the town of Kiang-kow. Here the men struck work, as they wished to go ashore for what they called rice, but which Chang interpreted as wine.
