Walking On Sunshine

This fact speaks for itself

When it is remembered that I was going in a straight direction through the country, some idea may be formed of the extent of this enormous silk district, which probably occupies a circle of at least a hundred miles in diameter. And this, it must be remembered, is only one of the silk districts in China, but it is the principal and the best one. The merchant and silkmanufacturer will form a good idea of the quantity of silk consumed in China, when told that, after the war, on the port of Shanghae being opened, the exports of raw silk increased m two or three years fromto , bales. This fact shows,think, the enormous quantity which must have been in the Chinese market before the extra demand could have been so easily supplied. But as it is with tea, so it is with silk,the quantity exported bears but a small proportion to that consumed by the Chinese themselves. The . extra bales sent yearly out of the country have not in the least degree affected the price of raw silk or of silk manufactures..Sehmunyuen, a town aboutle northeast from Hangchowfoo. was the next place of any note which I passed. It is apparently a very ancientcity, but has no trade, and is altogether in a most dilapidated condition. The walls were completely overrun with wild shrubs, and in many places were crumbling into rums. It had evidently seen better and more prosperous days, which had long ago passed dv. jl ne Boatmen miormea me mat tnis imrt of tne country abounded in thieves and robbers, and that they must not all go to bed at night, otherwise something would be stolen from the boat before morning.We reached the city about three o’clock in the afternoon. The morning had been cold and rainy, and the boatmen, who were all wet to the skin, refused to proceed further that day, I was therefore obliged to make up my mind to stay there all that night, and a more disagreeable one I never spent. After dark my servants and the boatmen told stones of celebrated pirates and robbers, untd they frightened themselves, and almost made me believe myself to be in dangerous company. The wind was very high, and, as it whistled amongst the ruinous ramparts, the sound was dismal enough; and what added still more to our discomfort tee ram neat tnrougn me rooi of our DoaL ana Kent ariDDing upon our oeas.Before retiring to sleep it had been arranged that my coohe and one of the boatmen were to sit and keep watch during the night for our protection from thieves.