It took us over an hour and a halt to cross the Yellow River which must be nearly two miles wide at this point. And even then we did not sail straight across, but took winding course between sand-banks, much as if we were crossing by a river in a river, Right out in the very middle, trackers were wading in the mud towing their junks, and Some of our crew when they got out to push the boat off a sand-bank, Instead of getting in again took short cuts across fie sand-banks which were only covered with a few inches of water and regained the boat further on. Owing to the low water, so the boat people said, we had to and about a mile down river from the proper landing-place, from where motor road of sorts runs to Taokow on the Taoching Railway.
For a mile or so after landing we had to. plough through a bad patch of sand—but nothing very dimeult—Until we got on 40 a fairly good motor road used by buses, along which we ran for about 40 miles Huahsien, "At this place the road turns west, whereas I had to turn due east, In order to strike at Kai chow the great highway that rans south through Hopel. For the frst lime during the whole of my 5,000- mile tour I came to a gap where there was no motor road. We had to use the ordinary country roads.
As the country was quite fat, it was. generally possible, by scouting ahead, to make sure whether a road was wide enough {o take the car, ud if not, as the weather was dry, turg bick by cutting across the bare fields from which the crops had just been gathered. The surface of these cart roads was naturally very
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.