Phe following prefatory note to. Mr. Wade's forthcoming "Sportsman's Map is so interesting to those who go up-country in boats that we reprint it in full Careful revision of the distance tables as iven eight years ago in "With Boat and confirms their substantial secur jun in the "Yangtze Valley" but Paradoxical as may appear the statement, there is practically less generally known of the waterways of this and the contiguous province of Chekiang to-day than was the case ten years ago, a fact largely accounted houseboat, which forbids its venture upon for by the palatial nature of the present other than the most easily negotiable creeks, while born of this more recent luxury is clearly traceable the degeneracy of. the twentieth century lowdah, usually indolent, ignorant, uncleanly and a vicious smoker, from whom it is impossible to get any in: formation about the country whatever, for the simple reason that he has none to give, and who is as unlike the " Cheery Skipper" of five and twenty years ago, as the present Shanghai is to the past, or as the proverbial chalk' is to cheese. Consequent. likewise, upon the decay of the lowdah is the decadence of the ordinary boat-coolie, who is a cruel confirmation of the truth of the old saving, "Like master, like man: " but the fact of the poor quality of the present-day coolie may in some measure be accounted for by the large draughts on good manual labour for harbour and cargo pur-Poses.
Tu respect of distances discrepancies will ever be arising as long as the China creek, especially the tidal one. pursues its devious way. and trust is placed on native ideas of distance which, as is known, are based so largely upon the atmospheric conditions of the hour,: in fact, whether the journey be made in fair weather or foul. In this connection it may not be out of place to mention a curious fact possibly not very generally known. The average distance between the "hsiens" or larger towns in this province of waterways is a stage of 90 li ora tsang, 'HI, a confirmation of which may be found in the well known distances, from suburb to suburb, between Shanghai' and Soong Soochow, Wusieb, Changchow, Tanvai This tsang. on the deci principle, is livided into 10 tra ing stoves of 9 li each, "the nine." It is not possible that the ready foreign reply of 3 miles an hour" to the very common question, " What is the average speed of the tracked "houseboat?" was originally based upon the long-established native hour track 9 Li. And a difficulty in obtaining anything approximating as precise information as could be wished lies in the fact that what should be the constant Ji is in rea most inconstant measure of length, varying in its degree in certain localities "as much as in noir way do the respective dialects of Ningpo and Nanking. Similar difficulty experienced by' Pere L. Gain, a member that great corporation whose mission stations thickly dot these provinces, and whose missionaries, constantly travelling, are admittedly well posted on questions of distance. In presenting his table of the invipal stations on the Grand C: the headqu: of acquiring exact information and plaintively adds Quel quiait pu tre notre som pour rediver correctement cet itinéraire, il est probable quail nous est cchappé de nombreuses inexactitudes qu'on voudra bien nous But his figure: ed at by his own means, differ but slightly from those ud in the following tables; to wit, ate of the long distance between Hangchow and Chinkiang, 780 against 805 li, shows that the slightest modification, ife sive on the one side, 14 per cent, and lo take on the other, would result in a difference so fractional, as to render inert all cavil. It is hoped that the addi the distance tables in miles, of Shany Wuhu, and of the Ningpo and Nanking districts,' kindly furnished by my friends, the Venerable Archdeacon Moule, B.D., and Mr, H. R. Hearson, respectively: may' be found not without their interest.
The possibilities of new Shooting Grounds suggested by Mr. Clennell's notes on his tour from Hangchow to Ningkuofu, in which he makes mention of so many kinds of both and flying game, ore sufficient to en feelings of pleasurable anticipate in the breast of anyone who a a particle of the sporting instinct in him; while the lovely character of the charmingly depicted in Fortun Years in the Ten Countries of Chi is of itself provocative of a desire to visit Extract: from a private letter from Mr. Consul Clennell to the Author "The river above Ningkuofa is rather impeded with rapids, there being about 45 of them in a distance of 100 li or so: but when the water is hich, bouts can get as far as Holichi. That is close to' Ningkuohien, and about 100 Li above the city. T even saw small boats higher up than that.
"On the Chikiang side of the border—and in some parts on the other side too—the "mountains are richly clothed with extremely dense forest, large trees in some parts, among which' wild cats or small panthers (y'sotzii), wild pigs. bears, badgers, and monkeys are to be found,: also rabbits in plenty. "There may be a few tigers, but none have been seen for years.
"As to the mountains the highest summit I ascended was Hsitienmu Shan, which made to be 5,100 feet high. It is 170 li or so from Hangchow (W.N.W.) and quite near the border of the province. There are ten or a dozen peaks of nearly the same height within a radius of a few miles. There is also a big spur to the North which runs up to Kapoo on the Taihu. Part of. this is called the Lungmu Shan: striking South and South West from the Hsitienmu Shan the hills are at first lower—then very bix—and the road from Hangchow to Huichou must pass for more than 150 li over very high land indeed. Coming down into the Ningkuofu country I travelled for three days along narrow winding valley, following
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.