Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/198

 194 —— Ling- Nam.

in its increased volume, are set immense waterwheels, twenty feet and more in diameter, with a circle of cups arranged in a slanting position, and large pieces of bambco matting attached for paddles. The force of the eurrent drives the wheels, and the endless succession of cups pours a constant stream of water into a large trough, which in its turn is connected with drains that distribute the water over the fields, More than a score of these dams meet us in the first fifteen miles, and they continue with nearly equal frequency all the way to the head of the stream. It is a matter of not a little skill to guide a boat successfully up and down these dams. The boats on this stream are all low and narrow, drawing but a few inches of water. Their chief business is to carry salt. They are manned by people from the villages along the river, who combine farming with boating. They usually travel in bands of twenty or thirty, and help each other ovér the rapids and dams, being hitched together by chains for this purpose. Several hours are often consumed in working a chain of twenty boats over the more difficult of these obstructions, and the traveller down the river has his patience sorely tried as: he watches the slow process, the channel being too narrow for two, and ascending boats having the right of way. From the river footpaths lead through the hills to the various towns, offering many attractions as they wind along the feet of lofty mountaims, through deep and picturesque glens, and in places past deserted coal mines, whose black débris disfigures the grassy hillsides. These rnined mines, with their mouths choked by falling earth and shrubs, show bow miserably fruitless have been the efforts of the natives to procure the ccal, of which good veins