Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/78

46 British and Chinese Corporation, and which may be expected to arrive in another year's time. In the meanwhile Nanking can show shipping entered and cleared aggregating close upon 4,000,000 tons.

In the course of the next thirty-six hours we pass the port of Wuhu with its thousand-year old pagoda, opened to trade in 1877; a second fortified bluff, by name Matung; a curious isolated rock rising abruptly from mid-stream with a monastery on its summit, and known as "The Little Orphan"; Hukow, a fortified position at the entrance to the Poyang lake; and on the evening of the third day draw up at the treaty port of Kiukiang, celebrated locally for pottery and silver ware, and enjoying the unenviable reputation of being the hottest of all the Yang-tsze ports. The following morning the houses and factories of Hankow rise on the horizon, and by midday we are landing on the magnificent shaded esplanade which runs along the river's edge the whole length of the British, French, and German concessions. A short time previously I had the opportunity of seeing something of Hankow, which vies with