onsiderable danger but had
been prevented from further investigating a historical spot since
strictly closed to all Europeans.

I left Peking at the close of 1889, and there being then no railway
the ninety miles' journey to Tientsin had to be performed either on
horseback, by cart along cross-country tracks or _via_ the River
Peiho, taking boat at Tungchow, which is fourteen miles from the
capital. I decided on going by boat as being far more comfortable than
the other alternatives.

Winter had begun early and there was already a certain amount of ice,
but from inquiries made the river was still open. My baggage was piled
on to a long, narrow cart drawn by two mules, while I and my boy each
bestrode a very small donkey, and so I passed out from the mighty city
by the stone road which leads to Tungchow, as owing to heavy rains and
subsequent frost the more comfortable country tracks were impassable.

This road, or rather causeway, is another witness to the Chinese
characteristic of constructing costly works and then leaving them
thenceforth to fall into disrepair and ruin.

From twelve to fourteen feet in width, it is built of massive granite
blocks a foot square by perhaps three to seven feet in length, and
originally must have been a magnificent highway of perfect evenness.
Time and the grinding wheels of heavy-laden carts, however, have worn
innumerable ruts seven or eight inches deep into the solid stone, so
that in passing over it a springless cart crashes from side to side
with great violence, almost throwing shaft animals to the ground and
rendering it quite impossible for any European to ride in the vehicle,
while crockery or any other fragile article, however carefully packed,
is doomed to certain destruction.

On arrival at Tungchow I saw a great deal of ice floating down with
the current, but the boatmen declared, and I believe truly, that the
river was still open to the sea, so having transferred the baggage to
one boat, and embarking with my boy and pointer on another, we cast
off at about three o'clock in the afternoon, expecting to reach
Tientsin the following evening.

Before dark the ice greatly increased in quantity, and from the cabin
where, enveloped in rugs, I was having tea, the boatmen's excited
voices could be heard making frequent inquiries of upward-bound junks
as to our prospects of getting through, for they were Tientsin men and
anxious to get their boats home before the river was froz