At Ichang we watched the coolies on the lighter stealing the hooping from the bales of cotton yarn. Each bale had five or six hoops and the coolies systematically removed one or two hoops from each, which they rolled up and hid. The attention of one of the agents was called to the matter, but we did not see the subsequent developments. I remember some years ago. 1eceiving a shipment of crockery in a large hogshead. On arrival four out of six hoops were gone, the remaining ones being the end hoops. From such tampering with packages it is but an easy step to broaching cargo, and probably firm dealing with offenders would put a stop to it. +The engineer of a steamer to which coal had been sent from the company yards by a lighter happened to inspect the lighter after the coal had presuthably all been unloaded and he discovered four tons in the bottom which had been pushed down between the cracks ut the' planking, and at $28 per ton would have been a fairly good squeeze for the lighter men.
Chinese coolies handle the flimsy native packages very carefully that the all too frequent breakages of boxed and baled cargo cannot be due to accident.
Suuacrep Optum From YUNNAN.
The great increase of the contraband opium trade was the cause of frequent comment, on the upper Yangtze. It seems to parallel what one hears of the liquor smuggling in America, for I was told that lage numbers were being attract-
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