tish manufacturer; and if the latter knew more of Chinese
transport and the manner in which the goods are handled in changing from
place to place, one would meet fewer broken packages on the road in this
land of long distances.

A friend of mine, needing a typewriter, wrote home explicit instructions
as to the packing. "Pack it ready to ship," he wrote, "then take it to
the top of your office stairs, throw it down the stairs, take machine
out and inspect, and if it is undamaged re-pack and send to me. If
damaged, pack another machine, subject to the same treatment until you
are convinced that it can stand being thus handled and escape injury."
This is how goods coming to Western China should be sent away.

Gradually the days brought harder toil. The mountains grew higher, some
covered with forests of pine trees, which natural ornament completely
changed the aspect of the country. Torrents foamed noisily down the
gorges, veiled by the curtain of great trees; sometimes, on a ridge, a
field of buckwheat, shining in the sun, looked like the beginning of the
eternal snows.

Food was at famine rates. Eggs there were in abundance, pork also; but
it was not to be wondered at that the traveler, having seen the
conditions under which the pigs are reared, refrained from the luxury of
Yuen-nan roast pig. My men fed on maize. The faces of the people were
pinched and wan, unpleasant to look upon, bearing unmistakable signs of
poverty and misery, and they seemed too concerned in keeping the wolf
from the door to attend to me. At Ta-kwan they treated themselves to a
_sheng_ of rice apiece--here the _sheng_ is 1.8 catties, as against 11
catties in the capital of the province.

At Wuchai, the last stage before reaching Chao-t'ong-fu, the room of the
inn had three walls only, and two of these were composed of kerosene
tins, laced together with bamboo stripping. (Probably the oil tins had
been stolen from the mission premises at Chao-t'ong.) Through the whole
night it rained as it had never rained before, but, instead of feeling
miserable, I tried to see the humor of the situation. One can get humor
from the most embarrassing circumstances, and my chief amusement arose
from a small business deal between one of my coolies, who had sublet his
contract to a poor fellow returning in the rain, who had arranged to
carry the ninety catties ninety li for a fourth of the original price
arranged between my coolie and myself. For one full hour the