a great emporium, some twelve miles inland. This curious arrangement,
so different from what one would expect, confronts one in China with
the regularity of a natural law: Canton, Shanghai, Foochow, and
Tientsin, all conform to it. The small city stands at the anchorage
for heavy shipping; but the great city, renouncing this advantage,
is located some distance inland, to be safe from sea-robbers and
foreign foes.

As we ascend the river we are struck with more than one peculiar
mode of taking fish. We see a number of cormorants perched on the
sides of a boat. Now and then a bird dives into the water and comes
up with a fish in its beak. If the fish be a small one, the bird
swallows it as a reward for its services; but a fish of considerable
size is hindered in its descent by a ring around the bird's neck
and becomes the booty of the fisherman. The birds appear to be
well-trained; and their sharp eyes penetrate the depths of the
water. Another novelty in fishing is a contrivance by which fish are
made to catch themselves--not by running into a net or by swallowing
a hook, but by leaping over a white board and falling into a boat.
More strange than all are men who, like the cormorants, dive into
the water and emerge with fish--sometimes with one in either hand.
These fishermen when in the water always have their feet on the
ground and grope along the shore. The first time I saw this method
in practice I ran to the brink of the river to save, as I thought,
the life of a poor man. He no sooner raised his head out of the
water, however, than down it went again; and I was laughed at for
my want of discernment by a crowd of people who shouted _Ko-ng,
Ko-ng_, "he's catching fish."

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