which had to be opened to let us pass through. These bridges form great impediments to the traffic, both on land and by water ; for the pontoon is never pulled up to make a passage until about a dozen junks and boats have collected, and their owners, who by that time have been long waiting for the event, are clamouring and fighting amongst themselves to get first through. While the boats are passing through, the land traffic is of course interrupted, and crowds of foot passengers and vehicles are pressing forward on each side of the aperture to await the replacement of the pontoon. One or two of them, unable to make their way back, were driven over into the water and rescued by boat-hooks as we passed. The narrow wooden pavement of the bridge was made still narrower by a throng of shops and stalls, lepers, beggars and jugglers.
As the land rose towards the hills which sweep like a cres- cent around the north of Peking, we emerged from the flooded plains into a less desolate region, where the people were not so destitute of the common necessaries of life, and where the banks were lined with ripe fields of millet. Our boatmen, like the dwellers on land, Hved on the flour of this useful cereal, which they season with salt-fish and garUc. The flour is made into bread, or rather cooked and pulled out into strings of hot, tough, elastic dough. This the people consumed in great quantities at meal-times, and always appeared to recover from its effects, although to me it seemed just about as digestible as india-rubber cables. Here we encountered many ponies, mules and donkeys in use; the mules being of an exceedingly fine breed, and having, many of them, zebra stripes across the legs. As for the donkeys, they were thoroughly domesticated, and followed their masters to and fro like dogs.
The huts improved in appearance as we neared Tung-chow,
