Your cor: was recently eld up by the fighting in Szechuan, for eight or nine days, at a place con one of the small rivers where the bamboo rafts used on these shallow streams were being repaired, assembled and made over. The work: was very interesting to watch and the watching helped to pass with. a lessened vexation what promised to be a most tedious wait.
These rafts are from 60 to 70 feet in length and eight to ten feet broad and are composed of ingle layer of large bamboo poles, 18 to 20 poles lying side by side, all being bound together after having been suitably prepared and fit-special bamboo "lan chun" which comes from the districts of Chiang' Ngan and Ya Chow. They are some four or five inches in diameter and in pieces up to 30 feet long, tapering but slightly in all this length. This bamboo is very hard and will resist much use as well as long exposure.
The poles are washed and scraped' very clean and are then allowed to dry in-the shade and are piled away until such time as the owner decides to build his raft. Then ering of trestien, two the end to end _joinings, in the different rows alternating, #0 that each joint is opposed on each side by. firm" wood. Considerable time taken up in selecting and Atting the poles.
The att is then roughly laid out on these trestle," the poles the head end being of considerable length. These must be bent in a suitable curve to form the prow of ft and the bending requires lo skill, as was evidenced ty the variety of excellence or otherwise of the work produced by: Aifferent workers. To bend the poles the ends are allowed to pro-Foot some ten feet over a higher trestle and these ends are weighted ith a bucket or other convenient Teceptacle containing eight or ten large cobble stones. The workmen en apply heat from a bundle of bamboo" waste, straw or other material at the same time. pulling ripon the weight until the desired cure is obtained. All the front Jayer are bent in this way into the same curve, so that when placed side: by side with the anda point ing upward "a proper prow {x formed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.