One imagines that salt is bound to be carried by the steamers very soon. There is very little salt in the town and this is the distributing centre for a wide area. Only about half-a-dozen junks have arrived within the last six weeks, and if the Szechuan salt merchants not see their way to ship salt by steamer, either thera will be a salt famine here or salt will have to be imported from some other place.
The French gunboat Craonne went down river, but has returned again, as there are rumours that the military may make some attempt to seize steamers which sail under the French flag.—Reu-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.