are now much more used by foreigners than formerly owing to the existence of at least four bungalows or health-resorts on the other and more hilly side of the river. Fortunately there is seldom any trouble with the boatmen who have it in their power, if so disposed, to make things rather uncomfortable, Hitherto, however, they have been only too delighted to get a foreign hire, and have shown themselves anxichs to do the passage with safety and expedition, The charge for natives is from 6 to 12 cash per passenger according to the season: for foreigners, anything. from 60 to 100 cash for the passage, not counting heads, That sum will charter a boat for the journey. Perhaps the most important local crossing is the Hait'anc'hi ferry. Hait'anc'hi is a village on the opposite bank of the river, and is the. termination of the great Kueichou Road or Roads. In former ys it was a town of some importance, much more so than it is now, although it is still of sufficient account to attract some hundred or so of coolies—chair-bearers and others—who make a livelihood by carrying travellers and their impedimenta up the steep acclivity to Huangkoshu, the village that nestles ce picturesquely in a dip of the first range of hills. The latter place is popularly supposed to be about 1,000 feet above the bed of the river, Tradition says that some 50 or 60 years ago a gentleman named Liao, when being ferried across the river, was so affected by the extortionate demands of the Hait'anchi boatmen that he decided to give a portion of his wealth to the sensible purpose of freeing the ferry. As a matter of fact he did so, placing his gift in the hands of the focal "oficial and gentry who, not unwillingly, consented to act as trustees. A. few years afterwards the generous donor died, and the fund, like so many other funds in China and elsewhere, was misappropriated. Ultimately the descendants of the donor, having become very poor, and cling that they bad as much right' to a share of the money as those who were without qualms applying it to private ends, concluded to fluenced by esprit de corps than it is elsewhere! Petitioners and defendants were held to be both wrong—the frst for wishing tmueh glory on the name of their gacseord to get. back the gift which had conferred so ancestor, and the latter for not having been tion. "The son or grandson of the donor well, clever enough to hide their spolia-thereupon broke down in Court, and his tears so moved the feelings of the high official before whom the case was tried that one of the trustees was condemned to receive 20 strokes of the bamboo on the hand In this way the tears of the youth wera dried, and judgment was given to the effect that, in after time, the local magis. trate was to be solely responsible for the of the fund, But, as stated
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.