e in
preparation whereby they shall be cut off and annihilated when they
come. When I had to climb a clay hill backwards digging my heels into
the dirt, I very much pitied that invading army.

Whether the granite-faced reservoir and two-mile tunnel that supplies
Hong-Kong with water be worth seeing I cannot tell. There was too much
water in the air for comfort even when one tried to think of Home.

But go you and take the same walk--ten miles, and only two of 'em on
level ground. Steam to the forsaken cantonment of Stanley and cross the
island, and tell me whether you have seen anything so wild and wonderful
in its way as the scenery. I am going up the river to Canton, and cannot
stay for word-paintings.

No. X

SHOWS HOW I CAME TO GOBLIN MARKET AND TOOK A SCUNNER AT IT AND CURSED
THE CHINESE PEOPLE. SHOWS FURTHER HOW I INITIATED ALL HONG-KONG INTO OUR
FRATERNITY.

Providence is pleased to be sarcastic. It sent rain and a raw wind from
the beginning till the end. That is one of the disadvantages of leaving
India. You cut yourself adrift, from the only trustworthy climate in the
world. I despise a land that has to waste half its time in watching the
clouds. The Canton trip (I have been that way) introduces you to the
American river steamer, which is not in the least like one of the
Irrawaddy flotilla or an omnibus, as many people believe. It is composed
almost entirely of white paint, sheet-lead, a cow-horn, and a
walking-beam, and holds about as much cargo as a P. and O. The trade
between Canton and Hong-Kong seems to be immense, and a steamer covers
the ninety miles between port and port daily. None the less are the
Chinese passengers daily put under hatches or its equivalent after they
leave port, and daily is the stand of loaded Sniders in the cabin
inspected and cleaned up. Daily, too, I should imagine, the captain of
each boat tells his Globe-trotting passengers the venerable story of the
looting of a river steamer--how two junks fouled her at a convenient
bend in the river, while the native passengers on her rose and made
things very lively for the crew, and ended by clearing out that steamer.
The Chinese are a strange people! They had a difficulty at Hong-Kong not
very long ago about photographing labour coolies, and in the excitement,
which was considerable, a rickety old war junk got into position off the
bund with the avowed intention of putting a three-pound shot through the
windows of the firm