Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/77

Rh veritable stream, and can boast of a discharge at London of but of that of the Yang-tsze 1000 miles from the sea.

The afternoon provides some mild excitement, for the channel narrows down to little more than half a mile, and from the summits of a low range of hills on the right bank a dozen or more heavy guns frown grimly down upon the waters. We are passing the well-known fortified position of Kiang Yin, to which China looks in the day of trouble to guard the great artery leading to the heart of her empire. Beyond Kiang Yin the river widens out once more, and the sun sets in a blaze of glory behind an uninterrupted rim of level land.

Early on the second morning Nanking is reached. Little of the city is to be seen from the river except the inevitable stone wall, which here comes down within a short distance of the river's edge, and a not altogether attractive-looking excrescence between the city wall and the river bank, due to the advent of the foreigner and his trade. Another foreign innovation is on its way—namely, the railway which is being pushed forward from Shanghai by the