Unconsidered Trifles on the River Bed Noticing from The Bund last week an endless procession of 50 or 60 small boats going up and down the river on the Pootung side opposite the end of Kiukiang Road one wondered whether this was joss pidgin or some special Chinese ceremony. On appealing for information to a waterfront authority it was explained that launches and small steam craft dump their ashes overboard in the Shanghai Harbour. By the action of the tides the ashes, lighter than the mud, are formed into four distinct ridges onthe river bed and hence the procession.
Drag boats are manned by the Kompo people, just above the beggar class, who eke out a meagre living by working over these ridges with small mesh drag nets until the ashes are exhausted. They come from Tungchow, opposite to Chinkiang on the north bank of the Yangtze, a poverty-stricken region, and each boat is usually manned by: the husband, wife and family. They work down with the tide, dragging these nets on the bottom until they are full, when they are emptied into the hold and they yuloh up against the tide and start afresh, repeating the operation until the boat is full. The ashes come up in small lumps and are washed and sold to tea houses inside the Native City and the Settlement, where they are mixed with small coal and used for fuel. These Kompo people are said not to be above snatching any loose articles from boats or wharves if they get a chance.
The four ridges of ashes are situated as follows: the lower one about a mile down from the upper end of the Blue Funnel Wharf, Pootung, the second in the middle of the river, for about three-quarters of a mile, starting opposite the Old Dock; the third by the ship buoys off Pootung Point and up and off Messrs. Mackenzie's godowns; and the fourth on the Pootung side of the river for about one mile outside the junk anchorage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.