Drought and Fires: Accident to a Steamer: Ingenuous Opium Smugglers Ichang, Dec. 9.
The drought still continues in the Ichang district. During the month of November the rainfall was only 0.56 inches.
One of the consequences of the drought is the frequency of fires. A large property was burned out Monday last and there was a second large fire two days later when many houses were consumed near the North Gate.
The level of the water in the! Yangtze is also very low,{ another result of the dry weather, and to-day.the water mark is 4 feet, a low level which was not reached until a month later than this during the last low-water season.
The new small steamer, Tsesui, which was specially built for winter navigation, met with an accident: on her third trip up to Chungking. She is reported to have hit the rocks near Fowchow and was holed, so badly that she had to discharge her passengers and cargo. The; Hsiakiang arrived yesterday fro Chungking and reported that the Tsesui was sti!] on the rocks at Fowchow. It is hoped that it will be possible to patch her up with} cement to enable her to get down to Shanghai for repairs.
Another small steamer, the Ta Pu, has arrived and is now on her maiden trip to Chungking.
Twenty-four piculs of opium were burned by the Customs a week ago.
An incident, which occurred, recently, is an example off the curious ingenvousness of some opium-smugglers) Two or three persons called on the Commissioner of Customs and asked if he would provide them with a document to chow as evidence that some opium that had been seized belonged to them. Needless to say, the Commissioner of Customs promptly sent the men to the magistrate, bearing a note to him informing him of the confession of smuggling opium and asking that they should be punished according to law.
JUNES SEIZED BY SOLDIERS, Movements of troops are continuing in the district but General €un Chuan-fang's division have now nearly all passed through Ichang. While they were being moved down the river from Patung, they seized all the junks that could be found 4nd it is reported that they just discharged) the cargoes on the shore at any place to which they happened to be taken. The incidents have been reported to the British Consul as some of the junks seized were chartered junks, flying the house flags of British firms.
The steamers of the China Merchants Ca. have been commandeered to take these men to Hankow and took neither cargo nor passengers on their last runs.
The troops of the defeated Sze-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.