The Siberian overland route from Peking to Petersburg, through the Deserts and Steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, etc

Front matter

PAGODA AND GARDENS OF THE EMPEROR'S SUMMER PALACE, YUEN-MIN-YUEN THE SIBEEIAN OVEELAND EOUTE FROM PEKING TO PETERSBURG, THROUGH THE DESERTS AND STEPPES OF MONGOLIA, TARTARY, &c. BY ALEXANDER MICHIE. TOMB AT THE DEPOT, PEKING. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1864. PKEFACE. The following work has but moderate claims, I fear, to public attention ; and it would probably not have seen the light at all but for the urgent request of friends, who think better of it than the author does. It has no pretensions to any higher merit than that of being a plain narrative of the journey, and an impartial record of my own impressions of the people among whom I travelled. Although some portions of the route have been eloquently described by Hue and others, I am not aware that any con tinuous account of the whole journey between the capitals of China and Russia has appeared in the English language for nearly a century and a half.

Important changes have occurred in that period ; and, if I may judge of others by myself, I suspect that many erroneous notions are afloat respecting the conditions of life in these far-off regions, and more especially in Siberia. ' Observation has modified my own pre-conceived opinions on many of the subjects touched on in the fodowing pages, and I am not without a hope that they will be found to contain some informati 1 which may be new to many people in this country. b

Preface

. If I have indulged in irrelevant digressions, I can only say that I have limited myself to those reflections which naturally suggested themselves in the course of my travels ; and the subjects I have given most prominence to are simply those which happened to be the most interesting to myself. My thanks are due to various friends for useful hints, con firming and correcting my own observations ; but I am especially indebted for some valuable notes on Siberia, its social phenomena, gold mines, &c, to Edwin E. Bishop, Esq., whose long residence in the country, and perfect acquaintance with the language and customs of the people, constitute him an authority on all matters connected with that part of the world. 22, Berkeley Squake, October 2Sth, 1861. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Shanghai to Tientsin. PAGE John Bell — " Overland " routes — Peking a sealed book — Jesuits — Opening of China — Chinese jealousy of Mongolia — Errors of British policy — Their results — Preparations for journey — Leave Shanghae — Yangtse-kiang — Changes in its channel — Elevation of the delta — Chinese records of inundations — The Nanzing — Shantung promontory in a fog — Chinese coasters — Advantages of steam — Our fellow-passengers — Peiho river — Intricate navigation — Sailors in China — Tientsin — New settlement — Municipal council — Improvements — Trade — Beggars — Health — Sand-storms— Gambling 1

Chapter II

Tientsin to Peking. Modes of travelling— Carts, horses, boats — Filthy banks of the Peiho — Voyage to Tungchow — Our boat's crew — Chinese distances — Traffic on the Peiho — Temple at Tungchow — Mercantile priests — Ride to Peking — Millet — Eight-mile bridge — Resting place— Tombs — Filial piety — Cemeteries — Old statues — Water communication into Peking — Grain supply . 23

Chapter III

Peking. Walls of Peking — Dust and dirt — Street obstructions — The model inn — Restaurant — Our boon companions — Peking customs — Rule of thumb — British legation — Confucian temple — Kienloong's pavilion — Lama temple— Mongol chants — Roman and Bhuddist analogies — Mongols and Chinese — Hospitality of lay brother — Observatory — Street cries- Temple of Heaven— Theatres — European residents— Medical mission under Dr. Lockhart— Chinese jealousy of Mongolia — Russian diplomacy — Reckoning with our host— Ice — Paper-money . . .32 CONTENTS. VI

Chapter IV

Peking to Chan-kia-kow. PAGE Return to Tungchow— Disappointment— Priest conciliated by Russian language — Back to Peking — Negotiations — Ma-foo's peculation — Chinese honesty and knavery — Loading the caravan — Mule-litters — Leave Peking — Sha-ho — Cotton plant— Nankow — Crowded inn — Difficult pass— Inner "great wall" — Cha-tow — Chinese Mahommedans — Religious toleration — Christians in disfavour — Change of scene — Hwai-lai — Ruins of bridge — Bed of old river— Road traffic — Watchtowers — Chi-ming-i — Legend of monastery — the Yang-ho — Pass — Shan-shui-pu — Coal— Suen-wha-fu — Ride to Chan-kia-kow. . . 56

Chapter V

Chan-kia-kow. Arrival at Chan -kia-kow — Focus of Trade — Mixed population — Wealth — Mongols — Russians — Name of Kalgan — Chinese friends — Russian hospitality — Disappointment — Proposed excursion to Bain-tolochoi — Camels at last procured — Noetzli returns to Tientsin — The pass — Mountains — Great Wall — The horse-fair — Dealers — Ox-carts — Transport of wood from Urga — Shoeing smiths — Our Russian host arrives — The "Samovar" — Tea-drinking in Russia — Change of temperature — Elevation of Chan-kia-kow — Preparations for the desert — Cabbages — Warm boots — Camels arrive — Leave Chan-kia-kow — The pass — Superiority of mules, &c. , over camels 72

Chapter VI

Mongolia. Leave China — Mishap in the pass — Steep ascent — Chinese perseverance — Agricultural invasion— Our first encampment — Cold night — Pastoral scene— Introduction to the Mongols — The land of tents — Our conductors — Order of march — Mongol chants — The lama — Slow Uavelling — Pony "Dolonor" — Night travelling— Our Mongols' tent— Argols Visitors — Mongol instinct— Camels quick feeders— Sport — Antelopes — Lame camels — Scant pastures — Endurance of Mongols — Disturbed sleep — Optical illusions — "Yourt," Mongol tent — Domestic arrangements — Etiquette — Mongol furniture — Sand-grouse — Track — Wind and rain — A wretched night — Comfortless encampment — Camels breaking down — The camel seasons — No population — No grass Mingan CONTENTS. VII

Chapter VII

Mongolia — con tinned. PAGE Visitors at Mingan — Trading — Scene with a drunken Mongol — Good horsemen — Bad on foot — Knowledge of money — Runaway pony — A polite shepherd — Gunshandiik — Wild onions — Halt — Expert butcher — Mongol sheep, extraordinary tails— A Mongol feast — Effects of diet — Taste for fat explained — Mongol fasts — Our cooking arrangements—Camel ailings — Maggots — Rough treatment — Ponies falling off — Live in hopes — Dogs — The harvest moon — Waiting for Kitat — ■ Lamas and their inhabitants — Resume the march — Meet caravan- Stony roads — Disturbed sleep — Gurush — Negotiations at Kutul-usu — Salt plains — Sporting lama — Ulan-Khada — Trees — Reach Tsagan-tuguruk — Lamas and black men — Small temple — Musical failure — Our new acquaintances — Horse-dealing — Greed of Mongols— Fond T)f drink — A theft — The incantation — Kitat returns — Camel lost— Vexa- • tious delay — Start from Tsagan-tuguruk 102

Chapter VIII

Mongolia — continued. Marshes — Camels dislike water — Chinese caravan — Travellers' tales — Taryagi— Looking for cattle in the dark — Butyn-tala — An addition to our party — Russian courier — Water-fowl — Bad water — Kicking camel — Pass of Ulin-dhabha — Mongols shifting quarters— Slip 'tween the cup and the lip — Mountains — The north wind — Guntu-gulu — An accident — Medical treatment — Protuberant ears— Marmots — Ice — Dark night — Bain-ula — Living, not travelling — Charm of desert life — Young pilgrim— Grand scenery — Steep descent — Obon — Horror of evil spirits — Mongol and Chinese notions of devils — Dread of rain — A wet encampment — Snow— The White Mountains — The Bactrian camel — Capability of enduring cold — Job's comforters — Woods appear —The yak— Change of fuel 122

Chapter IX

Urga to Kiachta. Maimachin in sight— A snow storm — Hasty encampment — Tolla in flood —Delay— Intercourse with Mongols— The night watches— Tellig's family— Rough night— Scene at the Tolla— Crossing the river— the " Kitat " redivivus— His hospitality— How Mongols clean their cups —Maimachin— The Russian consulate— Russian ambition— Its prospects—The Urga, or camp— Kuren— Fine situation— Buildings — CONTENTS. VIII pace Horse-shoeing — Hawkers — The lamaseries — An ascetic — The Lama king — Relations between Chinese emperors and the Lama power — Urga and Kara Korum — Historical associations — Prester John and Genghis Khan — Leave Urga — Slippery paths— More delays — The pass — A snow storm — Fine scenery — Rich country — Another bugbear — The Boro valley — Cultivation — Khara-gol — The pass — Lama courier — Shara-gol — Winter quarters — The transmigration — Iro-gol — Forced march — Kiachta in sight ......... Ill

Chapter X

Mongols — Historical Xotes. Early history of Huns — Wars with China — Dispersion — Appear in Europe — Attila — His career— And death — Turks — Mixture of races — Consanguinity of Huns and Mongols — Genghis— His conquests — Divisions of . his empire — Timour — A Mahommedan — His wars — And cruelties — Baber — The Great Mogul in India — Dispersion of tribes — Modern divisions of the Mongols — Warlike habits — Religions — The causes of their success in war considered — Their heroes — Their characters— And military talents — Superstition— Use of omens — Destructivcness and butcheries of the Huns and Mongols — Antagonistic traits of character — Depraved moral instincts — Necessity of culture to develop human feelings — Flesh-eating not brutalising — Dehumanising tendency of war — Military qualities of pastoral peoples — Dormant enthusiasm of the Mongols . . . . . . . . . . .166

Chapter XI

Mongols — Physical and Mental Characteristics. Physical characteristics— Meanness— Indolence— Failure in agriculture —Hospitality — Its origin — Pilfering — Honesty — Drunkenness- Smoking— Ir'chi or Kumiss— Morality— Of lamas— Women fond of ornaments— Decency of dress— Physique— Low muscular energy— A wrestling match— Bad legs— Bow-legged— Its causes— Complexions- Eyes— Absence of beard— Comparison with Chinese and Japanese- Effect of habits on physical development— Animal instincts in nomads —Supply the place of artificial appliances— Permanence of types of character— Uniformity in primitive peoples— Causes that influenee colour of skin— Mongol powers of endurance — Low mental capacity Its causes— Superstition produced by their habits— Predisposed to spiritual thraldom — The lamas and their practices — Prayers Knaveries of lamas— Vagabond lamas— The spread of Bhuddism— Superior to Shamanism — Shaman rites — Political result of Bhuddism The Mongol kings — Serfs ...... -igc CONTENT!?. IX

Chapter XII

Kiachta. page Approach Kiachta — Maimachin — Chinese elegance — The frontier — Russian eagle — The commissary of the frontier — ' ' Times " newspaper — Kiachta — Troitskosarfsk — Meet a countryman — Part from our Mongols — Their programme — A Russian bath — Siberian refinement — Streets and pavement — Russian conveyances — Aversion to exercise — Semi-civilisation — Etiquette — Mixture of peoples — Wealth of Russian merchants — Narrow commercial views — The Chinese of Maimachin — Domestic habits — Russian and Chinese characters compared — Chinese more civilised than the Russians — The Custom-house — Liberal measures — Our droshky — Situation of Kiachta — Supplies — Population — Hay-market — Fish — The garden — Domestic gardening — Climate salubrious — Construction of houses — Stoves — Russian meals — Commercial importance of Kiachta — Inundation of the Selenga — Travelling impracticable — Money-changing — New travelling appointments — Tarantass — Passports — Danger of delay — Prepare to start — First difficulty — Siberian horses — Post-bell . . . 203

Chapter XIII

Kiachta to the Baikal. Leave Troitskosarfsk — HOly roads — Bouriats — The first post-station — Agreeable surprise — Another stoppage — A night on the hill-side — Hire another carriage — Reach the Selenga — The ferry — Selenginsk — A gaUery of art — Cultivation — Verchne Udinsk — Effects of the inundation — Slough of despond — Fine scenery — A dangerous road — A press of travellers — Favour shown us — Angry Poles — Ilyensk — An obsequious postmaster — Tidy post-house — A night at Ilyensk — Treachery suspected — Roads destroyed — Difficult travelling — An old Pole — Baikal lake — Station at Pasoilske — A night scene — The Selenga river — And valley — Agriculture — Cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs . 223

Chapter XIV

Lake Baikal to Irkutsk. Morning scene at Pasoilske— Better late than never — Victimised — Russian junks — Primitive navigators — Storms on the Baikal — Scene at the shipping port — Religious ceremony — A polite officer — Inconvenience of the Baikal route — Engineering enterprise— More delay — Fares by the Baikal steamer— Crowing and crouching— The embarka- CONTENTS. X page tion— The General Karsakof— A naval curiosity— The lake— Its depth -And area— The "Holy Sea"— The passage— Terra firma—Custom house delay— Fine country— Good roads — Hotels Amoor and Metzgyr 234

Chapter XV

Irkutsk. In sight of Irkutsk— Handsome town— Wrong hotel— Bad accommodation — Suffocation— Bad attendance— The cuisine— Venerable eggs — Billiards — Meet a friend — Beauties of Irkutsk— Milliners— Bakers- Tobacconists — Prison— Convicts — Benevolence of old ladies— Equipages — Libraries — Theatre — Population — Governor - Generalship — The levee — Governing responsibilities — Importance of commerce — Manufactures insignificant — Education — Attractions of Siberia — Society— Polish exiles — The Decembrists — The sentence of banishment — Its hereditary effect — Low standing of merchants — Discomforts of travelling — Engage a servant — The prodigal — A mistake — Early winter — The Angara — Floating-bridge — Parting view of Irkutsk 216

Chapter XVI

Irkutsk to Krasnoyarsk. Leave Irkutsk — Roads and rivers — Capacity for sleep — Bridges — Breakneck travelling — Endurance of Russian ponies — Verst-posts — Appalling distances — Irregular feeding — Tea versus grog — River Birusa — Boundary of Irkutsk and Yenisei — Stoppage — The telegraph wires — Improved roads — River Kan — The ferrymen — Kansk — A new companion — Prisoner of war — Advantages and disadvantages of travelling in company — Improved cultivation — A snow-storm — Cold wind — Absurd arrangement of stations — The river Yenisei — Mishap at the ferry — The approach to Krasnoyarsk — The town— Population — Hotel — Travellers' accounts — Confusion at the station— The black-book — The courier service ........... 262

Chapter XVII

Krasnoyarsk to Tomsk Sledges — Sulky yemschiks — Progress to Achinsk — Limit of Eastern Siberia — Game — The Chulim — Difficult ferry — Government of Tomsk — Bad roads' again — Job's comforters — Mariinsk — An accident — And another — Resources of a yemschik — A drive through a forest — Ishimskaya— A d.ay too late — A sporting Pole — Disappointment — Annoying CONTENTS. XI PAGE delay— Freezing river— A cold bath— Sledge traveUing— A night scene —Early birds— Arrive in Tomsk— Our lodging— Religion of Russians —Scruples of a murderer — Population and situation of Tomsk — Fire Insurance— Climate of Tomsk— Supply of water— Carefulness and hardiness— Skating— Demure little boys— An extinct species— -The gold diggings — The Siberian tribes ....... 273

Chapter XVIII

Tomsk to Omsk. Refitting — The optician — The feather-pillow question — A friend in need — A dilemma— Schwartz's folly — Old Barnaul leaves us — We leave Tomsk — A weary night — A Russian dormitory— Construction of houses — Cross the Tom— And the Ob — Enter the Baraba steppe — Kolivan — The telegraph — The ladies of Baraba — Game — Windmills — A frozen marsh — Kainsk — Reach Oms — 0 utbreaks on the Kirghis steppe — Russian aggression— Its effects on different tribes 290

Chapter XIX

Omsk to Ochansk. Leave Omsk — Recraiting — Cross the Irtish — Tukalinsk — Yalootorofsk — Reach Tumen — Improved posting — Snowroads — Ekaterineburg — Mint — Precious stones — Iron works — Englishmen in Siberia — Iron mines — Fish trade — A recruiting scene — Temperature rising — Game — The Urals — Disappointing — A new companion — The boundary between Europe and Asia — Yermak the Cossack — Discovery and conquest of Siberia — Reach Perm — Too late again — Progress of inland navigation — Facilities for application of steam — Water routes of Siberia — Railways —Tatars — Cross the Kama to Ochansk — Dissolving view of snow roads 305

Chapter XX

Russian and Siberian Peasantry. Siberian and Russian peasantry — The contrast — Freedom and slavery — Origin of Siberian peasants — Their means of advancement — Exiles — Two classes — Their offences and punishments— Privileges after release — Liberality of the government — Its object — Extent of forest; — One serf-proprietor in Siberia — Exemptions from conscription — Rigour of the climate on the Lena and Yenisei— Settlers on Angara exempted from taxes — Improvement of Siberian peasants— A bright future — Amalgamation of classes— Slavery demoralising to masters— The emancipation of the serfs — Its results 320 c CONTENTS. XII

Chapter XXI

Kazan. — Polish Exiles. page Road to Kazan — Polish prisoners — Arrive at Kazan — More croaking— Temptations to delay — Sell our sledge — View of Kazan — The ferry at the Volga — Ice-boats and icebergs — The military — Tatars — Polish exiles — Kindly treated by their escort — Erroneous ideas on this subject — The distribution of exiles in Siberia — Their life there — The Polish insurrection — Its objects — Imprudence — Consequences — Success would have been a second failure ........ 331

Chapter XXII

Kazan to Petersburg. A day lost — The moujik's opportunity — Return to Kazan — Hotel " Ryazin" — Grease and butter — Evening entertainment — Try again — The ferry — A term of endearment — Ferrymen's devotions — A Jew publican — " Pour boire " — Villages and churches — The road to Nijni — Penance — A savage — A miserable night — Reach Nijni — "Sweet is pleasure after pain " — The great fair — Nijni under a cloud — Delights of railway travelling — A contrast — Reach Moscow— Portable gas- Foundling hospital — The Moscow and Petersburg railway — Grandeur of Petersburg — Late season — Current topics — Iron-clads — The currency — Effects of Crimean war — Russian loyalty— Alexander II. as a reformer — Leave Petersburg 343

Chapter XXIII

Russia and China. Earlier intercourse — Analogies and contrasts — Progress of Russia and decadence of China — Permanence of Chinese institutions — Arrogance justified — Not really bigoted — Changes enforced by recent events — The rebellion — Fallacious views in parliament — British interest in China — A bright future — Railways — Telegraphs — Machinery and other improvements — Resources to be developed — Free cities . . . 357 Postscript LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Pagoda and Gardens of the Emperor's Summer Palace, Yuen- M in- Yuen. (From a Photograph by Beato) Frontispiece. Tomb at the Depot. Peking. (From a Photograph by Beato) Vignette. Tung Chow Pagoda. (From a Photograph by Beato) . ... 27 Walls of Peking. (From a Photograph by Beato) . . . . 32 Pavilion of the Summer Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen.

(From a Photograph by Beato) . 37 Thibettan Monument in Lama Temple. Peking. (From a Photograph by Beato) . . . . 42 Great Temple of Heaven. Peking. (From a Photograph by Beato) 48 Part of the Emperor's Palace, Yuen-Min-Yuen. Destroyed 1860. (From a Photograph by Beato) . . . . . . 55 The Nankow Pass 63 Halt in the Desert of Gobi 104 Fording the Tolla near Urga 147 View of Ekaterinburg. SiBERiei. (From a Russian Photograph) . 1 THE SIBERIAN OVERLAND ROUTE FROM PEKING TO PETERSBURG.

Chapter I. Shanghae To Tientsin

The charming narrative of John Bell, of Antermony, who, in the reign of Peter the Great, travelled from Petersburg to Peking in the suite of a Russian ambassador, inspired me with a longing desire to visit Siberia and other little-known regions through which he passed. Having occasion to return to England, after a somewhat protracted residence on the coast of China, an opportunity presented itself of travelling through the north of China, Mongolia, and Siberia, on my homeward journey. This is, indeed, the real " overland route " from China, and it may as properly be styled " mari time," as the mail route per P. & O. steamers " overland." The so-called overland route has, however, strong temp tations for a person eager to get home. There is a pleasing simplicity about the manner of it which is a powerful attrac tion to one who is worn out with sleepless nights in a hot climate.

It is but to embark on a steamer ; attend as regularly at meal times as your constitution will permit ; sleep, or B what is the same thing, read, during the intervals ; and fill up the blanks by counting the passing hours and surveying your fellow passengers steeped in apoplectic slumbers under the enervating influence of the tropics. The sea route has, moreover, a decided advantage in point of time. In forty five or fifty days I could have reached England from Shanghae by steamer : the land journey via Siberia I could not hope to accomplish in less than ninety days. But the northern route had strong attractions for me in the kind of vague mystery that invests the geography of strange countries, and the character, manners, and customs of their inhabitants. Ever-recurring novelties might be ex pected to keep the mind alive ; and active travelling would in a great measure relieve the tedium of a long and arduous journey.

Of the two, therefore, I preferred the prospect of being frozen in Siberia to being stewed in the Red Sea. The heat of Shang-hae in the summer was intense and almost unprecedented, the supply of ice was fast undergoing disso lution, and an escape into colder regions at such a time was more than usually desirable. A few years ago it would have been about as feasible to travel from China to England by way of the moon as through Peking and Mongolia. Peking was a sealed book, jealously guarded by an arrogant, because an ignorant, government. Little was known of the city of the khans except what the Jesuits had communicated in the last century, and what that prince of travellers, Marco Polo, had handed down from the middle ages. No foreigner dared show his face there, except in the guise of a native, and even then at the risk of being detected and subjected to the greatest indignities.

The Jesuits, it is time, in the face of the prohibition, continued to smuggle themselves into China, and even into Peking itself, and their perseverance and tenacity of purpose are entitled to all praise. But thev Chap, i.] CHINA RE-OPENED. 3 occasionally paid dearly for their temerity, and not unfre quently got themselves and their " Christians " into hot water with the authorities. This received the high-sounding name of "persecution;" and if any one lost his life for meddling in other people's affairs, or interfering with the prerogative of the government, he was honoured with the name of a " martyr." The Jesuits had their day of power in China, and if they had but used it modestly they might still have stood at the elbow of the Emperor. They were tried and found wanting, expelled from Peking, and China was closed against foreigners, not, it must be confessed, without some reason.

All that has been changed again. The curtain has risen once more ; foreigners are free to traverse the length and breadth of China, and to spy out the nakedness of the land. The treaty of Tientsin and convention of Peking, ratified in November, 1860, which opened up China to travellers for " business or pleasure," was largely taken advantage of in the following year. In 1861, foreign steamers penetrated by the great river Yang-tsze into the heart of China. Four enterprising foreigners explored the river to a distance of 1800 miles from the sea, and many other excursions were set on foot by foreigners, in regions previously known only through the accounts of Chinese geographers or the partial, imperfect, and in some instances obsolete, descriptions of the older Jesuits. Mongolia, being within the dominions of the Emperor of China, was included in the passport system ; and although the Chinese government has made a feeble attempt to impose restrictions on foreign travellers in that region on the ground that, although Chinese, it is not China, up to the present time no serious obstacles have been placed in the way of free intercourse in Mongolia ; nor can the plain language of the treaty be limited in its interpretation, unless B the ministers of the treaty powers should voluntarily abandon the privilege now enjoyed.

It is devoutly to be hoped that no envoy of Great Britain will again commit the error of waiving rights once granted by the Chinese. However unimportant such abandoned rights may appear, experience has shown that the results are not so. Sir Michael Sey mour's war at Canton in 1856-7 could never have occurred if our undoubted right to reside in that city had been insisted on some years previously. Our disaster at the Taku forts in 1859 would have been prevented if the right of our minister to reside in Peking had not, in a weak moment, been waived. What complications have not arisen in Japan, from our consenting to undo half Lord Elgin's treaty and allowing the port of Osaca to remain closed to our merchant men ! We cannot afford to make concessions to Asiatic powers. Give them an inch and they will take an ell : then fleets and armies must be brought into play to recover ground we have lost through sheer wantonness.

Too late to join a party who preceded me, I had some difficulty in finding a companion for the journey, but had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of a young gen tleman from Lyons, who purposed going to France by the Siberian route with or without a companion. We at once arranged matters to our mutual satisfaction, and proceeded with the preparations necessary for the journey. Having the advantage of excellent practical advice on this head from gentlemen who had already gone over the ground, we had little difficulty in getting up our outfit. A tent was indis pensable for Mongolia, and we got a very commodious one from a French officer. A military cork mattress, with waterproof sheets, proved invaluable in the desert. Our clothing department was inconveniently ■ bulky, because we had to provide both for very hot and very cold weather.

The commissariat was liberally supplied, rather overdone, as Chap, i.] THE DELTA OF THE YANG-TZE-KIANG. 5 it turned out, but that was a fault on the safe side. The accounts we heard of the "hungry desert," where nothing grows but mutton, induced us to lay in supplies not only for an ordinary journey across, but for any unforeseen delay we might encounter on the way. We had first to get to Tientsin, six hundred miles from Shanghae, and two steamers were under despatch for that port. I embarked on board the Naming, Captain Mor rison, about midnight on the 28th July, 1863. Taking ad vantage of the bright moon, we steamed cautiously down the river Wong-poo for fourteen miles, past the village of Woo sung, " outside the marks," and into the great river Yang tsze, where we cast anchor for the night.

It would be hazardous to attempt the navigation of the estuary of the Yang-tsze, even in bright moonlight. Its banks are so flat as to afford no marks to steer by. The estuary is very wide, but the deep water channel is narrow, with extensive shallows on either side. The upper parts of the Yang-tsze-kiang, where the river narrows to a mile or two in breadth, and flows through a bolder country, are more easy of navigation. In the broad part of the river, near its mouth, the deep water channels have a tendency to shift their positions. The surveys of the river from its mouth to Nanking, made in 1842, were found inapplicable in 1861. Where shallows were marked in 1842, deep water was found in 1861, and dry patches were found where the navigable channels were before. The delta of this noble river is rapidly growing into dry land ; the " banks " are fast rising into islands, and the channels of the river becoming more circumscribed.

The rapidity with which this process is going on is most remarkable. From a point nearly fifty miles from the mouth of the river it is divided into two great branches, called by hydro graphers the north and the south entrances. Twenty years ago extensive shallows lay between, and many a good ship found a final resting-place on these treacherous banks. The most dangerous of these are now above water, and are visible from a distance sufficient to enable the pilot to keep clear of them. In the small river Wang-poo also, at and below the town of Shanghae, the land is gaining considerably on the water. An island has formed and is still growing near the mouth of the Wang-poo, known to pilots as the " middle ground." Until a very few years ago it was entirely under water. In the year 1855 I was aground on the top of it in a schooner near low water, and the rising tide floated us off easily.

The island is now so high as to remain uncovered in the highest spring tides. Thus, in the space of eight years, this island has risen more than twelve, and probably not less than eighteen feet. The formation is extending itself dowTi w7ards ; the tail of the island stretching away under water brought up many vessels in 1862 and 1 863, where there was plenty of water a year or two before. On the south shore of the Yang-tsze-kiang the lines of embankment mark the dis ferent stages of the aggression of the land on the water. When a dry flat was formed liable to inundations in high tides, an embeinkment of mud was built for the protection of the inhabitants who settled on the reclaimed land. In pro cess of time more land was made, and another embankment formed. Thus three distinct lines of embankment, several miles inland from the present water line, are to be traced from below Woosung towards Hang-chow Bay, and a very large tract of good arable land has been reclaimed from the river, or, as the Chinese call it, the sea, within comparatively modern times.