and river, amply
repaid one for the toilsome journey.

Of rowing there is very little, except at Shanghai and Hongkong, where
there are large and flourishing clubs.

Hongkong being on the sea it is not practicable to use light ships,
which, of course, is a great drawback.

At Shanghai there is the harbour and also a small creek about the size
of the Cam, both of which afford ample facilities. The club has two
excellent boathouses and plenty of boats, and is composed of the
finest material possible, all the best men in Shanghai, as is ever the
case elsewhere, going in for rowing at one time or another; but the
rowing is not first-class, and unless things have greatly changed
since I was an active member, a crew capable of sitting a light cedar
ship could not be mustered, all the racing being done in clinker
boats.

The reason for this lack of watermanship is partly due to the
difficulty in coaching otherwise than from the stern of a boat, there
being no towing path on which the coach can ride or run alongside his
men, as is done at Oxford or Cambridge, while the hire of launches is
too expensive. Also, part of the reason is due to beginners being
seldom taken out and coached in tubs by expert senior men who have
had the benefit of a professional or scientific training, but are put
into a bad four and left to develop themselves as best they may. It
would well repay the club to have a path made alongside the creek and
to get a professional out from home for a year or two to initiate a
high-class style, after which the traditions, once firmly established,
would pass down naturally to succeeding generations of oarsmen.

The coxing is on a par with the rowing. I have seen a length lost at a
corner, the rate of striking reduced by ten a minute and the crew
badly pulled to pieces, through the rudder being hard on when the oars
were in the water.

After all, skill in rowing is but a question of degree and of no vital
importance in a place so isolated from other rowing centres as is
Shanghai, while the club is certainly one of the best to get into on
arriving there, especially for youths, as plenty of good, open-air
exercise can thus be obtained in the society of strong, healthy-minded
men.

If hills or mountains be within easy distance bungalows are there
built, to which most ladies and children retire for the hot weather,
the men snatching hasty visits when business allows them to leave the
settlement. At one place d